Love Triangle
by DemacianSentry
Summary: When we are young we only know to love our friends as family. It is when we are older that we start to find we love them so much more. The hardest part about falling in love with our friends is falling in love with more than one. Chapters will lead to a love story. Rated M because the story is realistic for their lives and their love. Starting with background. Thank you.
1. Surreal Beginnings

**Chapter 1****: Surreal Beginnings**

"So, the only two subjects who are setting off red flags are numbers 6 and 18?" Said the tall one.

The short one replies, "Yes, but for very opposite reasons."

"How can you measure how opposite something is?"

"I was being facetious. You know for fun."

"Well it is not 'fun' having super-expensive test subjects backfire on you before you have completed the preliminary tests. So please be serious with me." Said the tall one sternly.

"Continuing on, number 6 is showing too many signs that she is developing a conscious."

"How many times must I insist upon you to call them 'it' not he or she!" The tall one replied, trying to conceal his disdain.

"Yes, yes, 'it' is showing signs."

"And number 18?"

"Well it is having problems understanding any basic studies of techmaturgy." The short one said in a disappointed tone.

"As in, it is a moron?"

"No, it just doesn't choose to learn and even when it does things right it will just destroy it and find it humorous."

"We want them to enjoy destruction though. Or did you forget?"

"I know that, but what kind of destruction can it do if it cannot take proper care of or even reassemble the devices it uses to do so?"

The tall one rubbed his right index finger and thumb in a pinching movement on the bottom of his chin for some time contemplating these results. "It would seem you have messed up any chance of bettering number 18."

"What!? You think my 18 is the lost cause? Not your sweet little number 6? Thinking it shouldn't hurt the unarmed prisoners we order it to fight." The short one yelled. "I bet if the Department Head came down here right now he would strip you of your position and mix you in with the prisoners to make-up for the embarrassment number 6 would be in the final prelims."

"A subject that cannot fully function in the field would die or be captured immediately. Can you even fathom the havoc that would come as whiplash if number 18 was captured and tortured to expose it is from Zaun!?"

"It would be a laughing stock if number 6 was sent out with a conscious and a 'good heart' only to have it wind up betraying all of us to our enemies by thinking it is doing wrong with us. We cannot afford them being so self-aware of the horror we need them to cause on others. It is better that we 'flush' it now!"

The tall one again pondered in the same way as before while the short one stood hands at hips and tapping his left foot repeatedly and looking at the tall one angrily. Then the tall one raised his right index finger up alone and said, "Aha! We know only one of this pair is allowed to continue and because there is no obvious winner we should decide which one can prove it can learn to shed its disadvantage. We can't send out no one the Department Head would think both of us are disappointing failures."

"Ah." Said the short one. "A wager again is it? Well it has been a while. Let's do it."

"The usual cost?"

"No. Double!"

"Haha. Very well then. You may go first." Said the tall one with an evil grin.

All this time numbers 6 and 18 were standing there keeping up with every word. Both wore the standard red jumpsuits and their hair was cut to a military grade. Number 6 had pink hair and number 18 had blue hair (typical weird hair colors of the test subjects). Number 18 was a little younger and shorter than number 6. The two of them had always worked well together and never showed any signs of becoming nemeses. They almost seemed to care for one another like sisters but they promised each other long ago to never let the White-coats know this. So they acted like good subjects when they were being watched. Problem was that outside of bath time they were always watched. The two knew each other by their Roman numeral name tags. Number 6 was VI and number 18 was XVIIJ. So 18 called 6 V-I in secret and number 6 called 18 X-V-I-I-J in return, or X-J for short. They didn't have any understanding of Morse code or anything of the sort but they choose their own noises so they could speak in private.

VI tapped her right foot three times fast, 'What is happening?' XVIIJ replied using her left foot with a thud a tap and another thud, 'I don't know.' The language was very simple. Mostly small talk, but every once and a while one would create an idea for a new word or phrase and they would memorize it together at bath time. They spent all their time away from being watched keeping up on the private talking so they could talk whenever they want. Besides the way the tests pinned them against each other they had a deep connection of what can only be described as family love with one another. Not the kind where you want to hit your sibling for spilling soda on your game console, but the kind where you can know you are wanted and loved as equally as you give out. In a way they were both failing the prelims. Thankfully they enjoyed destruction almost as much as they loved each other so the flaws they had never showed in the tests. The problem with this test was that they both began to suspect individually that the other would soon be taken from them. It made them both scared and they both were finding it hard to hide that fear from the White-coats. Who thought the two subjects were scared of this wager they were about to begin.

The short one approached VI. "Alright then." Turning to face the tall one he asked, "Anything goes?"

Happily the tall one replied, "Anything goes."

The short one snickered and faced VI again. "Number 6, do you know you must be able to resist pain to pass the program?"

VI replied, "Sir, yes sir!" yelling like a soldier as they always were expected to.

The short one reached into his coat pocket and retrieved a portable electronic device that looked like a wand. "Do you know what I am holding?"

VI saw the device and knew it well. It was a prodding wand designed much like a soldering iron. It is put at a low setting to give a flash of heat to the back of a test subject's head to get them to continue a test. It hurts but never burns the skin. Today VI feared that might not be the case.

XVIIJ saw the wand in the corner of her eye and cleared her throat and then coughed and then cleared her throat again, 'RUN!'

VI filled her cheeks with air and let out a tight-lipped puff loud enough to be heard doing it, 'No.'

XVIIJ clucked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and the sucked her teeth loudly, 'Please!' She had to blink real quickly to suck a tear back into her eye. XVIIJ wanted to scream out, 'Don't le them do it, I couldn't bear to watch!' but couldn't think of a way to say it in their own language. So she kept her focus clear on the task of remaining unconcerned about her friend.

VI stood firm against her fears and stood firm in place replying, "Sir, I know what that is, sir!"

The short one bent over to get up close into VI's face. "I am turning this up to its maximum heat and I am going to use it on you. If you flinch then you prove you cannot resist pain. Do you understand?"

VI almost let out a gasping cry but instead replied, "Sir, I understand, sir!"

"Then let us begin." He said as he turned it on and twisted the dial to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. "Now hold still." He smiled as he etched the roman numerals V and I into the skin just under her left eye.

VI wanted to scream. She knew it would be a burning pain but she didn't know there would be a sting of pain so extreme it would make her feel like she wanted to die. The White-coat did three quick, dragging strokes as to not permanently damage the skin tissue any more than a mild second degree burn. Every time the wand touched her face she could feel nothing but despair believing that if this one wasn't the last she would surely expose weakness on the next stroke and be 'flushed' away.

A flush is whenever a lab in Zaun decides to get rid of a subject. They get thrown into a square pool of water with nothing to grip so that they might grow tired and drown "peacefully" in the putrid water filled into their tanks for a flush. Typically the beginning of a generation of test subjects is sorted by the pick-of-the-litter and the undesirables are tossed into the pool for the daily flush. The rules of the flush room are that the subject must be put in four hours before a scheduled flush to ensure it works properly. Not just test subjects are flushed. The waste collected from around the labs too: fecal matter; urine; blood; chemicals; etc.; etc. When the flush starts the waste gets pulled through three miles of pipes and is then dumped out into the Zaun harbor.

She proved her worth as a viable test subject and stood firm during all three marks. The tall one came over to see her face. "Hmm, it would seem you have failed at your attempt." Turning slightly to face the short one.

"So I have. I have to say I am impressed, even the most hardened subjects cannot take that abuse so well."

"Get the burn dressings. We wouldn't want your failed attempt to break it causing a time consuming infection."

"Good luck trying something more extreme on the other. I am quite sure it would enjoy the pain. Hehe." The short one said passing the tall one the cold-press and bandages.

"I have a better plan in mind." The tall one finished the dressings and pulled the short one away from the subjects to show him something in private. "You see this?" He whispered. "This is a regular electrical handgun built using fundamental techmaturgy."

"A Zapping Pistol. Really? You want to test its knowledge with such a simple device? Are you trying to lose the bet?"

"I have great confidence number 18 will not figure out how to activate the power supply. I have taken the liberty of putting a new cell into the chamber. Now are you feeling this way to throw me off that my plan might work?"

"No, no that was not what I meant to imply."

"Then may I continue?"

"Very well." Said the short one cheerfully. "I guess we agreed anything goes so it's up to you."

"Alright then." The tall one said as he turned around and strode over to XVIIJ. "Number 18, do you know what I am holding?"

XVIIJ honestly had no feasible memory of the object but guessed in her head that it was a gun. She couldn't just say that she would look foolish. She also feared it was meant to be used on her if she answered wrong. She desperately tried to ask VI for help. Blowing air loudly through her nose was their code, but she couldn't get a response from VI it made her feel betrayed. Little did she know VI was using all her strength to conceal how much pain she just endured and was oblivious to the rest of the world.

XVIIJ replied with her foolish answer, "Sir, it is a weapon, sir."

"Haha." The tall one laughed as he turned to meet the short ones eyes. "You see it doesn't even know what I am holding even though it just broke one…last week you said right?"

"The short one loudly muttered, "Three days ago."

"Three days! Hahaha! I cannot see how much more stupid it could be."

"Alright get on with it I don't have all day."

"Very well." He turned back to XVIIJ. "Number 18, you have fifteen seconds to activate this pistol that I fixed this morning. It might be the very one you broke."

XVIIJ panicked internally, 'fifteen seconds' this couldn't be happening. She knew it wasn't pain like VI endured but she never paid enough attention to her studies to understand how techmaturgy works. She knew deep inside it would be her last moments of life right here and now.

The tall one held it out to her in his left hand and held the wristwatch on his right hand close to his face. "As soon as you grab it your time will begin. Bear in mind the most simple of subjects we have ever put through the tests can do this in less than seven seconds. Number 6 itself has done it in three seconds, I've seen it."

XVIIJ nearly let herself gulp. She looked at VI hoping the White-coats would see her do this as a sign of respect for her record score and hoping even more she would see VI turn and mouth out directions on how to activate the weapon. To no avail. VI still looked too shaken by her recent infliction of pain to help XVIIJ at all.

VI was just now coming back to her senses. Realizing she had been subconsciously holding herself together in the way she had been trained to. After the cold-press was pushed up against her cheek she immediately felt a deep feeling of despair that brought her out of reality and tortured her greatly for what felt like years. When she came to she noticed the tall White-coat was holding a Zapping Pistol out to XVIIJ and looking intently at his watch. She didn't dare look at XVIIJ for fear that any compassion would mess up her friends' chances to prove her own worth. She knew it would be hard on XVIIJ and VI wanted to do nothing more than beg the White-coats not to flush her. She couldn't imagine a life without XVIIJ. How could she it's all she knows. It's where she learned her sense of conscious from. Like watching after a younger sister, holding her when she's sad and giving comfort for when days were just too much. What could she really do now?

XVIIJ quickly grabbed the pistol and immediately started to look it over for a button or a dial, something that can be used to turn on the pistols power supply. She was at seven seconds and she started to really panic. She couldn't think and started smashing it on the ground, almost crying. But she can't cry or she would fail before time ran out. For whatever reason, she suddenly thought to try and open the weapon.

The Zapping Pistol is a glass tube placed on an electric coil pad installed into a handle where the power is stored. The glass tube is a vacuum sealed high-powered light bulb that allows the energy that circulates inside escape through the metal ring at the beginning and end of the weapon to force the electrical charge-shot forward.

XVIIJ tried twisting the circular panel on the back of the tube to try and open it. When she noticed that twisting it counter-clockwise began to loosen up the tube she pulled it all the way out and back. The energy cell activated and the pistol began to charge its first shot.

"Aha!" The short one yelled. "That was no more than thirteen seconds. Or was my count off?"

The tall one sighed, "No, no you guessed right it did it at thirteen seconds."

"Why so disappointed? You made a good attempt. We both knew it was very incompetent with techmaturgy."

"I feel bad that I was so overconfident of its stupidity."

The short one walked casually to XVIIJ and grabbed the pistol from her hands. "Let me take that number 18." He turned to look at the tall one. "This is where it ends no matter what." He grew a big smile on his face.

The tall one looked a little disturbed and then smiled as if he knew what the short one was going to do next. "It seems too early for you to end a bet but I grow tired of these two anyways go ahead." The short one then ordered VI and XVIIJ to stand two paces apart and face one another.

While the White-coats were looking at each other VI quickly mouth, 'I'm sorry!'

XVIIJ mouthed back, 'It's okay! Are you okay?'

Just as the White-coats were turning back to speak with them VI quickly thudded her right foot on the ground, tapped her left foot once and even more quickly thudded her right foot down again, 'I don't know!'

"Alright then number 6 this will be the ultimate test for you to reach your final prelims." The short one said as he approached her. "Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good, good. Now, take this pistol." It was still charged and was showing a fully charged shot. "Tell me what you understand of the pistol's lethality?"

VI grabbed a hold of the weapon in the proper fashion. She knew the weapon well, she has put it together before, piece by piece. "Sir, the Mark XI-23B Zapping Pistol is a model of electrical techmaturgical ingenuity. It can be lethal, or rather fatal only with a point blank shot trained on the targets heart. Most effective at the right ventricle, sir!"

"Splendid! Isn't it a perfect student?" The tall one exclaimed.

"Yes it certainly is, but that is not its flaw. Is it number 6?" The short one asked rhetorically.

"I have no flaws, sir!" VI quickly replied.

"We shall see about that. Right now as a matter of fact. Hold the pistol level to number 18s' chest." The short one ordered.

VI complied but felt an unnerving feeling like she was going to be doing more than causing XVIIJ some high-powered electrical pain.

At this point VI and XVIIJ are standing in the middle of the lab facing one another. The tall one is on XVIIJs' left and a little far to that side and behind her facing diagonally across at VI. The short on is behind and to the right of VI with his left hand in his front left pocket and his right hand holding the grip of a tranquilizer weapon holstered at his right hip. The White-coats use these weapons a lot whenever they need to detain or transport the subjects between labs. Right now he had a feeling that VI wouldn't fire where he was planning to order her to, so he wanted to be ready to take her down. The pistol is still lethal at five yards. If she got a good shot off at the tall one or himself then it would be a disaster for the program.

Vi held the weapon firm with both hands trained on XVIIJ with a shot at center-mass. "What are my orders, sir?" She exclaimed fighting back the urge to say her words with a crying tone.

"You know the way to cause a fatal shot, so do it to Number 18. Now!"

VI could feel herself get wide eyed as she saw XVIIJ do the same. 'No, no!' she thought to herself, 'I can't! Please be joking and tell me something else, please!'

But VI knew it was a direct order and there was nothing she could do but obey. She leveled the weapon at XVIIJs' right ventricle and began to squeeze the trigger.

A red ring started to form on the skin around XVIIJs' eyes and VI could see she wanted to cry. But VI wanted to cry too. XVIIJ saw the same red ring around Vis' eyes. If it wasn't for the White-coats, if they were in bath time, they would be crying and screaming their last goodbyes to one another.

Neither one could muster up enough strength to make one of their private noises to say anything, nor did they dare mouth out a single word. VI hoped desperately XVIIJ wouldn't die but she knew it was no use. Her friend/sister would surely be killed.

VI thought quickly and said, "Sir, can your repeat that sir?"

The short one almost jumped the gun on bringing her down at her first word but instead he relaxed his grip on the tranquilizer and repeated his order much more clearly and slowly, "Cause a fatal shot to Numb-," he was suddenly caught off as the electrical weapon made a discharge noise and sent a shot straight at the heart of the tall one. Or at least where he had just been standing before he purposely fell to the floor. "You arrogant little bitch!" The short one exclaimed. "How dare you try that on a superior!?" And with that he pulled out the tranquilizer and shot VI in the back of the neck just as she was charging the next shot.

XVIIJ was stunned and couldn't move an inch. Not for fear of the short ones' wrath but because she couldn't believe her friend/sister just did that for her. She watched in silence as VI collapsed to the floor, clutching the pistol tight in her right hand.

The tall one walked fast to her body and dislodged the pistol from her grip kicking her in the gut as he got it from her. "Dammit we should just kill it now!" He yelled as he trained the weapon at her head.

"No it will be knocked out when it is put in the pool for the next flush. It will die soon anyways."

The tall one relaxed and said, "Well I guess this means you won, we said double the usual bet right?"

"Yes, so I am sure you can pay up now."

"Of course" The tall one said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the payment to hand it to the short one. "Two gold coins as per double the usual."

The economic system that existed in Zaun and most of Valoran was gold, silver and copper and gold coins were whole parts of a credit. To give perspective to you readers in reality it was like two U.S. Dollars.

Either as an insult to their subjects or as a way of expressing how tight-pursed they were they still gave a clear expression that they cared little of the lives of VI and XVIIJ pr any of the other subjects. That would be the case to the girls if they understood the currency that was used in Valoran.

XVIIJ remained still thinking about what she just saw VI do. 'Why V-I? Why did you do that, now their going to flush you.' She wanted to cry, and beg, and scream for the White-coats to let VI stay with her. To let them both excel in the program. But somehow she knew they would never let both of them go on to the final prelims. So she settled on giving her fallen sister her gratitude. 'Thank you V-I, I will never forget you.'

"Oh shit!" The tall one burst out saying. "We have exceeded the deadline for the flush today! It starts in ten minutes!"

A great sense of joy suddenly overtook XVIIJ and she almost let out a smile. 'V-I can be with me one more day. Maybe we could find a way out during our sleep time.' Regardless of the plans she couldn't see working out, for an escape, she was still feeling happy and full of hope for VI.

"No need to worry." Said the short one. "It will be unconscious when it gets thrown into the pool and it will quickly drown without a hitch. Now we have to go quickly or we will get caught doing it by the Flush Department, they come in five minutes before the flush to do final checks on bodies."

Just like that XVIIJ was left alone, in the same position showing nothing on her face and feeling horrible on the inside. She wanted to scream out, 'Let me say goodbye!' but she knew someone could walk in and witness her outburst so she remained still. She couldn't see anyway around being the one to move on and to do so alone. 'I promise that I will never let my sister's sacrifice go to waste. I will survive all tests from here on out. For you V-I, for you.'

The incompetent White-coats got lost as they usually did and barely got VI into the pool before the flush process began. They couldn't stay and check to make sure she submerges because every second in that room put them at risk of being caught. As the flush began VI started to go under and the flush began to carry up speed for the expulsion into the harbor.

Today was a not-important-flush kind of day. So the Flush department, having not seen a single body in the pool, decided to do the quick half-mile flush into the bay instead of the normal three miles flush that ensures that living subjects in the pool have enough time to drown. Like a last bit of insurance. Just because they didn't see the need to do a full flush.

So when VI was flushed out the pipeline onto the shallow beach of rocks in the Zaun harbor she had spent only enough time in there to ingest a few gallons of water. She still was put at risk for drowning after all. She laid there half submerged in the putrid water. Looking "peaceful" like a body fresh from the morgue. And then she vomited.


	2. Broad Focus

**Chapter 2:**** Broad Focus**

From the hill beside Piltover, directly opposite the city's harbor, you could see the newly reconstructed main spire sitting atop the small mountain. The air running through the lightly forested valleys around the city caused the trees to sway in unison almost like a sea of green moving waves against the bay. The hill itself had little density of tress along its landscape and as the air reached it you could almost imagine it crash on the hillside as the trees swayed carelessly in the many ways the wind broke and flowed up to the top. It all looked so peaceful.

_BLAM-CRACK!_

Caitlyn spun around from looking at the city to wincing at the man who had just opened fire right next to her ear. Barely able to her herself, she uttered loudly, "Son of a bitch!"

"Pay attention!" She could faintly hear the man next to her say.

The man to her left looked at her with stone-cold eyes. He was a tall and broad man. From the front you would think his gut big and fat, but it was a dense grouping of muscle that had grown from years of chasing down criminals and fighting some bare-handed. He was in his late forties and his age showed in his gray hair cut short and encircling his face in a thick beard with no mustache. He wore Leather armor clad in thin iron to complete the rustic ensemble. One brown eye and one silver eye was enough to show he was blind on his left side. Reinforced by the scarring around his left eye's socket. Years ago in his early thirties he was at the mercy of a mugger that had him at gunpoint with the barrel aiming directly at the eye point-blank. Either luckily or unluckily as it was for him the mugger had rushed the packing of the pistol's muzzle and had forgot to load a round in with the black powder. The rest is obvious. The gun blazed out a scorch of fire across his eye and knowing he wasn't dead he reached out and grabbed hold of the mugger's neck giving it a tight twist and severing the connection to his spinal cord. Earning him the title "Blind Justice" for the ironic incident that occurred. His real name was Roy and he was the current Sheriff of Piltover. A positioned ratified solely by the citizens of the city-state.

"When your mother promised me you would be serious about becoming a deputy I did not believe her until I saw a look of promise in your eyes," he said bluntly, "but all I have seen from you this week is a distracted teenager!"

The statement got deep under Caitlyn's skin and it hurt to hear it but she knew he was right. A few months ago a mugger had attacked and robbed her father on his way home from work. She had decided to sneak out later that night and track down the culprit with her father's rifle. She completed this first unofficial arrest at the age of fourteen and had earned praise from the police department instead of being chastised for her vigilante-like behavior. The praised landed her an opportunity to become the youngest deputy every in the city-state of Piltover. Although many of the citizens believed it was a stunt from the politburo to achieve public admiration, she knew it was her chance to follow her heart in protecting the city she loved her whole life.

"I know, I know, its just that the city looked so peaceful and I was dreading what it would look like if no one was able to protect it if anything every happened to you." She half-lied.

"DO not bullshit me!" He barked as he pointed his right index finger at her face. For some reason he quickly calmed himself and said, "I know this is a lot to take in at a young age, but you agreed to take on this lifelong commitment and as such you must remain focused to the responsibilities it entails."

"I'm sorry, I will try- do better."

Almost cutting her off he exclaimed, "How many times must I remind you there is no try. It's do or do not!"

"Yes, I will do better!"

Roy sighed deeply, "Alright then let's return our attention to the range."

"Right! You want me to hit the target if it attempts to get up again or begins to reach for a weapon."

The far end of the range held a few straw dummies on sticks and wires. Each dummy had control wires leading to its opposite at the firing side of the range. That is where Roy was able to control the movements of each dummy from a box holding different wires labeled for each dummy. In a real situation Roy would approach a downed target with a deputy, such as Caitlyn, providing ranged cover for him. But in this simulated scenario he had a dummy on a clothesline to signify his approach. After all, accidents can happen in the field, so it's better to just play it safe in a practice. Three wires a piece were in groups in the box. The three wires were: one to down the target; one to simulate the target rising; and finally one to pull the dummy's arms in close as if to reach for a weapon. As a man of justice and order he had trained all his deputies to the same codes of using guns. Never point the gun anywhere you do not intend to shoot it and always remember to never aim for a kill-shot.

At this point in the simulation the culprits had just ran out into the open and the sheriff and his deputies have commanded 'Halt, and surrender your weapons!' When they had not the officers would have then shot them down in a blur of gun powder, blood spray and wincing screams. Caitlyn and Roy had done that right before she had started dosing off. What Roy didn't yell at her about is the fact that whatever reason she got distracted for. It had to have been right when she got the last dummy culprit down, because she missed a takedown shot and merely grazed the dummy's right leg. Now that they were about to do step two of the arrest Caitlyn was finally clear-headed enough to see the missed shot she took and a feeling of self-disappointment started to shake her up and offset her grip on her rifle.

Roy noticed this and laid his hand on her shoulder saying softly, "Its ok. We all get distracted. That is why we practice, so we can get used to ignoring those distractions."

And just like that Roy had put the sharp edge back on her relaxed smile and she fell into a near-perfect stance cradling her weapon like her whole body was a mounted gun placement. She would not miss anymore. She also was feeling better with such a nice and sweet man as Roy helping her become a better marksman.

Caitlyn was a normal looking girl. By normal I mean she had no apparent uniqueness to her features or the characteristics of her attitude. She was tall, for her age, brunette with long hair, deep violet eyes, and near-pale white skin. She wasn't technically on duty so she was allowed to wear as she liked. But all she had were the modest day clothes her father would let her have. A full blouse and pants suit that constricted her movements and made her shooting experience feel, not-at-her-best. Like it or not she knew she was the daughter and only child of a statesman and even as a deputy she still had appearances to keep up.

When she was all ready to start the second step she got into a standing position that was stable and said, "Trained and ready, sheriff."

"Alright then here I go forward to inspect the culprits and clap them in irons." He said as he started to work the dummy-him down the range to the dummy-culprits.

Immediately Caitlyn started looking over each dummy. In short crisp movements she used her left hand on the forend of the rifle to position her up, down, left and right movements to each of the dummies. Keeping her right eye tight on the lenses she stopped at the arms of each culprit long enough to notice changes and then moved to the next one in a cycle.

This is how the deputies are trained. Under ideal circumstances, three or more deputies would be on the flanks of the sheriff as he made his approach. But the city has always needed a constant flow of shifting patrols. So the deputies are placed in teams of two or three and given a leader to fulfill the role of the sheriff in his absence. Then with less and less deputies so close to the sheriff as time passes in a day, and multiple crimes are being handled, Roy has found it better to train his best deputies to be a single point of cover. He expected nothing less than the same from Caitlyn.

She did not disappoint. Her movements were so crisp and precise that it appeared she had been doing this routine for twice as many years as her age. In short she was a natural.

Caitlyn's mother is a pioneering hextech researcher, and through her field she was able to outfit her father's rifle into a more battle ready weapon. The rifle bears the look of its original muzzleloader form. The barrel has been rifled and a chamber has been added to the stock end of the barrel. The chamber has been designed with four functions for the four different kinds of rounds her mother has designed for the rifle to fire. Under the rifle near the chamber is a slot opening for a quarter-circle magazine to be placed snuggly into it. The magazine held a small amount of the special rounds and had a max capacity of 45 normal rounds. Being that Caitlyn is right handed a special hammer for her three special rounds, referred by her mother as the 'equipping hammer', has been added to the right side of the chamber. The normal rounds are fired via a hammer inside the chamber at a semi-automatic rate. The four rounds are: the normal brass enclosed shot; a tight-stitched cloth round containing a special net large enough to wrap a man Roy's size; a plastic covered round (like for a shotgun) holding an expandable blade that is as wide as Caitlyn's wingspan; and the never-been-seen-before-this-weapon, super, hextech, magnum round that would increase the drop-off point of the bullet to four times the rifles normal range. Using the equipping hammer, one would pull it back for one click to activate the net round. Two clicks for the precision expandable blade round. And for the sake of not making mistakes you would need to pull back the hammer to four clicks in order to use the SHM (_shimm_) round. To solve the problem of over-heating in the barrel her mother designed a hextech engine attached to the gun to channel the excess heat energy into every sixth normal shot. It made the round twice as powerful and destructive as a normal bullet. Finally the barrel had no original sights on it. Begging the question of how talented this girl was, seeing as though she used the original design of the gun to take her first mark down from 100 meters away. So her mother equipped three lenses to the front end of the chamber, another a few inches up on the barrel, and the third at the firing end of the barrel. With these sights a normal marksman could make her famous 100 meter shot with ease. But with Caitlyn behind the sights the round could go hit a target 200 meters away with barely any effort. The SHM round had a max range of 800 meters, but you would need a good telescope to see that well. And so her mother had given her the top hat her grandfather wore in the service. It was purple with a bronze ring around its base and two yellow vertical bars going across the front symmetrically. Attached to it is a hinged arm that holds three other lenses that scale down to the front one. Making her vision go through six lenses when they were all used, and giving her a clear line-of-sight to a target nearly a kilometer away.

Now that Caitlyn was getting familiar again with the alertness she used in the training, she started to relax a bit. Perhaps she relaxed too much because just as the dummy-Roy was about to reach the closest dummy-culprit, the one farthest away began to rise up and simultaneously reach for a weapon. And as Caitlyn focused on the rising dummy she almost missed seeing the one next to it do the same. She acted like it was a normal occurrence. In a fluid motion she kept her aim between them to hold her vision as her right hand swung around from the trigger to the equipping hammer and pulled it back two clicks, before fitting her hand tightly back into a firing position. Pulling the butt of the gun deep into her shoulder, she squeezed her trigger hand gently to fire the expandable blade round. It hit the second rising dummy on the right first as it came by in between them slicing their hamstrings, or where their hamstrings would be if they were real.

"Beautiful!" Roy exclaimed. "That was the level of focus I was expecting from you, and you did not fail to be on the ball. Brilliant!"

"Sir, are we not still engaged in an arrest?!" Caitlyn asked in a sturdy voice.

"Oh, don't you start with me!" Roy bellowed. "Don't you act smart with me about focusing."

Caitlyn had intended to get this reaction for her question. So she smiled when he replied and said, "So it's ok to let my guard down before they are in cuffs."

Roy was about to scold her for being a little smartass. Instead he started to laugh as if it didn't matter that they were in the middle of a live fire exercise. "Okay, okay, maybe I was too harsh before. I wanted you to be prepared for a real situation but besides shooting at a target that can fight back there really isn't anymore training that can prepare you. You are ready. But remember even the most experienced marksmen still keep up practice and take it seriously."

Caitlyn nodded sharply. "I will try." She started to smile big and before the rage building in Roy could explode out in a harsh tone she cut him off and said, "Haha, just kidding, I will do."

Again Roy found himself chuckling over the young lady's humorous attitude. 'She certainly is still a child,' he thought to himself.

"Hey Roy?" Caitlyn asked.

He looked at her and replied, "Hmm?"

"If we're done here then do you want to join me for lunch?"

Suddenly it became apparent to Roy it was almost 1 pm and he and Caitlyn hadn't eaten since 6 am. As if his body had just realized this too he heard his stomach growl. He looked down at her standing there patiently awaiting a response and a horrible realization dawned on him, much worse than his hunger. Caitlyn was a teenaged girl and didn't go to school anymore because of the lifelong vow she took to protecting justice and order in Piltover. She would no longer have the chance to pass the normal milestones those her age would endure growing up. She was treated as, and expected to behave in a manner befitting, a normal deputy. A normal deputy was generally accepted at the age of 22 unless circumstances granted an earlier induction. So because she wouldn't know a normal teenage life she would be kept from the co-ed activities that would've ensued. Roy understood well that because she was part of this life working for justice, her only real interaction to the opposite gender was the other deputies and himself. He thought about his life growing up. The girls in his teenage years crushing on him and his friends. She wouldn't get the chance anymore to learn how to grow healthy relationships or understand the difference between love and infatuation.

He could imagine the damage that would be caused if he put her in her place at such a young age and explained how inappropriate her request is. But he didn't want to destroy her before she has even had the chance to grow. He knew that he should try to bring her down gently but to do that outright was too blunt.

"I would love to eat lunch with such a beautiful young lady." He replied, almost feeling like 'beautiful' might have been too much.

Her face lit up and she said, "You will? Great!"

He decided then and there to build her confidence in herself up instead of destroying her self esteem. He thought briefly on how her parents gave little time and perhaps, he speculated, little thought to her emotional well being. He could show her how to build a healthy relationship. Make her understand how to judge a man by how he treats a lady. So she doesn't end up in some abusive relationship. He felt a new feeling he had never felt before, but had always desired. He felt like a father now and he found that he was pleased to do this for her. He knew she would grow too close to either him or another deputy. It was only a matter of time. Her body and mind is still undergoing changes she will not understand until she is in her 20's. But he felt if he could build her up to understand how strong and beautiful she is then she would just shrug-off a rejection and move on to boys her own age. He thought with a sense of pride, 'People can think what they want when they see us together. It matters not what they gossip. If I can help Caitlyn grow the way a young lady should naturally then I will do that for my deputy. After all I would take a bullet for any of my deputies, why not take a little emotional pain in just the same way.' And with that he grabbed his gear and set off down the hillside, Caitlyn following close by, smiling sweetly holding her rifle on her left shoulder by the strap.

The restaurant Caitlyn and Roy went to was a sandwich deli near the Police Department. Not to be confused with the Sheriff's Department fourteen blocks further down the road. The place was named _**Mart's**_ and it served an original kind of sliced meat famously called "Sweet Mystery Meat" which was a favorite in the community because oddly enough it was sweet. Not too sweet to eat but enough to make the meats inside all the more better. Speculations were always made about the recipe but Mart always said, "It's just my favorite blend of meats and its worth too much for me to share my secrets, I mean I am trying to run a business." After newcomers would ask the question about the recipe you could almost see all the regulars lip-sync the words Mart used every time. Mart was his own head chef and decided long ago to hire a manager to deal with the customers so he didn't screw up the atmosphere of his own deli. So the restaurant-deli had waiters, busboys, and entertainers to give the restaurant better appeal than just a back-alley deli.

When the waiter assigned to Caitlyn and Roy sat them down to a table near the center of the room he pulled out a pad and immediately asked, "What can I start you two out with?"

Roy looked at Caitlyn and said, "Go ahead and order first."

Caitlyn didn't even have to look at her menu. She set her rifle behind her chair against the backrest and said plainly, "I will have the ham and turkey supreme on wheat bread, half sandwich, please."

The waiter quickly jotted her order down. "And to drink?"

"Lemon fuzzy-water, please." She replied after a moments thought.

The waiter turned to face Roy, "And you sir?"

Roy looked over the menu and sighed, "Always the same old same old Mart. Just tell him he knows what I want." He then handed both menus to the waiter.

"And to drink sir?" The waiter asked while fumbling with the menus and his notepad.

"Same thing. He knows." Roy replied cheerfully.

Roy looked straight ahead at Caitlyn and after a few moments of silence he awkwardly asked, "So how goes your home schooling, are you keeping up with your basic studies?"

Almost as if she had been holding her breathe she exhaled a fury of words that would have shocked a lesser man. "So, yeah. The home schooling is just aweful. Like how does my mom and dad expect me to take being a deputy seriously if they keep forcing all these hard studies on me? And why do I need anymore schooling, I thought this was a lifelong commitment thing? Ya, know? I mean it's not like I need to know about history in order to take down bad guys all my life…"

This went on for 14 minutes, but felt as though they were 14 hours to Roy. He had forgotten for a while that she was a teenaged girl and wanted to talk a lot and whenever possible. He was briefly reminded of how he used to sit patiently as a young man and ask a pretty girl questions while he did his best to pay attention. She was normal and she deserved to be treated that way. 'Everything's fine.'

After she was finished with whatever it was she had gone on about, he decided to push his luck at testing her emotional state. He asked as nice as he could, "So, is there a young man in your life you may be fond of?" His tone almost sounded like he was hinting he knew something. He didn't, but he accidently asked it like he did.

"No fucking way would I tell you!" She almost screamed. Other people in the deli quickly glanced at her and she started to blush.

Roy exclaimed calmly, "Caitlyn there is no need to be so cross I am only curious."

"Well that's not really normal for even my parents to ask." She said still blushing.

Roy pondered if his original idea about her parents were true. What if they don't care enough to even ask, just so she knows they care? 'I am sure they do care just not enough to do something this bold,' he thought. It was all speculation, he would have to push more to get her to open up more.

So he decided to push just a little more. "Are you saying you don't fancy any boys?"

She looked at him with a quizzical face, "I don't-"

Just then Caitlyn's eyes widened and it looked to Roy as if she had just been left dumbstruck by his question. As he reached out to grab her shoulder she jumped to her feet grabbed her rifle and quickly ran out of the restaurant-deli.

He cursed under his breath. 'Shit! I went too far!' But as he followed her outside it became obvious that the stare she gave him was actually looking past him out the window and into the street.

_BLAM-CRACK!_

He hadn't jumped from the sound of a gunshot in years, but in the confusion Caitlyn's shot managed to ravel him. On the ground 50 meters away was a fury little male yordle with a grazing wound in his right thigh. All around police were storming in to surround the yordle. She had shot perfectly, the graze left him immobile, if the shot had made full contact it would have chopped the leg clean off. Normally Roy preferred to use a zapping pistol to bring them down safely, but He was impressed by Caitlyn's incredible talent. Clutched in the yordle's hand was a bag that had spilt out gold pieces onto the ground.

A yordle is a miniature humanoid like creature that either has a furry body and/or a smooth blue skinned body. This one was a little of both and was strapped with a crossbow.

Roy would later ask Caitlyn how she spotted the yordle holding the money and running nervously away from chasing police from so far away? Also how she was able to focus so well when the prior conversation they were having was quite intense? She would say she just saw the situation and decided to react, as if she had better awareness than Roy naturally. Roy looked her over standing there holding the rifle in a perfect stance and trained on the yordle's other thigh. It finally dawned on him what the importance of helping this young lady's emotional state would be. She would be the next Sheriff of Piltover, without a doubt.


	3. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

**Chapter 3: Wrong Place, Wrong Time**

From the back deck of his little cottage on the shores of Bluewind Bay, James Farthen could see the shoreline lead to Piltover, The City of Progress, and back down for many miles in the opposite direction. On a normal day he would do three full, slow turns of his head to survey all that was visible. Once for each meal. Today he heard the often far-to-loud rolling thunder of the gunshots coming from the hilltop where the Sheriff's Department trained. It was lunch time and as he started his head turning from Piltover to the opposite far off end of the bay he paused. Something had washed up on shore. Immediately he suspected luggage from the Piltover cargo ship that was recently raided by Bilgewater pirates. This only came to mind because he could swear he say a pink article of clothing sticking out of the bag. He went in to grab an expandable telescope and drew it to his left eye when he went out to his back deck again. He suddenly felt himself choking out his words, "Lana! Lana come out here, and bring the med kit!"

_Twenty-four hours earlier._

VI was just getting done vomiting the last few mouthfuls of putrid water into the Zaun harbor. When she realized she was crying now. She whimpered, "X-J."

She stood up and looked over at the facility she had just been expelled from. Somehow it looked much worse from the outside than it did from the inside. Go figure.

Checking her body for damages and finding she had two broken ribs she decided that they hadn't tried to kill her before they flushed her away. She remembered shooting at the tall one and missing. The last thing she could recollect was charging the next shot, then a slight sting in her neck, and finally staring into XVIIJ's eyes before everything faded black.

Then reality fell on top of her like a ton of bricks. No more XJ. No more tests. No more XJ. No more bath time. No more XJ. No more White-coats. No more XJ. No more coded phrases of loving concern. No more XJ. No more XJ. No more XJ. No more.

She fell on her knees and cried into her hands. Suddenly her face was on fire and she splashed seawater in her eyes to make it stop but it made her cry more. 'Please stop, it hurts,' she begged in her thoughts. She stopped rubbing her face. Tears still pour out her eyes. The water stilled a little. She looked at her reflection in the waters surface. And she was reminded why her face hurt. The letters V and I were etched into her face under her left eye and she knew it would always be there from now on. The only thing she has left of her past now is that scar and it pissed her off.

"FUCK YOU WHITE-COATS! FUCK ALL OF ZAUN! FUCK!" She bellowed loud enough to hear her words echo back to her across the harbor. Her tears had stopped. She was nothing but unbridled rage now. She had no thoughts on her mind. She was just feral. If she wasn't isolated on that shore and was instead in a crowded place she might have started killing anyone who passed by her. But for the sake of the people of Zaun she was in fact alone.

When she finally calmed and came back to her thoughts she realized and accepted her past was past. XJ was gone and hopefully she wouldn't flunk out of the prelims. Maybe she would make it out of there alive. That thought gave her hope. Hope that in a few years VI could meet XJ again and she could hold her again, just like she did when they were alone. 'Live my little sister, live.'

Worried that she couldn't stay in Zaun because she was supposed to be dead she looked across Bluewind Bay and decided that she would go live her life in whatever place was out there. She would find a boat, steal it or ride along on someone else's boat to try and get over to the other side of the bay. She couldn't see the far end, but it was a bay so she knew it had another shore out there. Wherever the boat would take her would be her knew home.

She stealthily searched the harbor for a row boat and when she found it she went looking for the bigger boats too. On the closest cargo ship to the shore she spotted a sign which read:

_Zaun Fleet By-Laws_

_Any Individual who tries to stowaway on a Zaunite Ship_

_Shall be chained to a cannonball and tossed overboard!_

_Signed,_

_Head Dock Master_

'Looks like I will have to just take a small rowboat, it's not too far. I think.' She pondered in her head.

Stealing some provisions from the cargo ship's hold she went down to the rowboat she spotted earlier and untied it from the dock. Casting off in the light of a roughly new sun she started to row out to open sea. It took only minutes to understand how the ores work and in no time she could hardly see the Zaun harbor anymore. And with that a problem arose. Which way is her destination?

VI could feel her adrenaline flow as she quickly figured out she was lost at the open sea. She started to ask herself the pointless questions, such as: How do I know where to go? And What if I just tried to go straight one way, would it work?

For the nine hours of sunlight she had she rowed around the bay hoping she was headed in a mostly straight line to the opposite shore from the Zaun harbor.

If you were a bird in the air above her then you would see the erratic path she took throughout the whole day. Looking at a map (If you got one fine if not I cannot help you, sorry.) you can imagine yourself the route. Starting from Zaun Harbor at the southeastern part of Bluewind Bay she set straight out across it going north by northwest.

VI is left hand dominant. It was forced on her to be left-handed because of her left eye being dominant. The focus of her training in the lab was to use weapons, mostly firearms, as perfectly as possible. Even though she far exceeded her fellow subjects in close combat. Winning her individual spars with a fury of fists, and proving somehow to the White-coats it was far better to punch than to shoot someone. She still had to be trained in on projectile weapons. Her shooting was adjusted for her left eye so she became a lefty in everything else to make it normal for her. But that right hook, she had, was still the fiercest any White-coat had ever seen on a lefty in Zaun before.

That left hand dominance was a problem on the open sea. She had put her self out in open water, but now she was doing circles and the current around her was drifting her out of the bay. VI started to see ships coming into the bay and she had to take desperate measures to stay way out of sight. This started to make her journey go in unpredictable directions that left her even more confused. The ships were all moving fast into the bay. She saw ships from Bilgewater, pirates of course, but they were passing up ships they could obviously plunder to keep going into the bay. Her senses took hold of her and she realized they were all running from something. She looked at the sky out away from the bay and saw what they were running from. Huge three mile high black clouds were closing fast into the bay. She started to row the boat in the opposite direction. There was no sign of the shore and the clouds were coming up on her fast. She was panicking, under the storm she started to see lighting bend in and out of the clouds. The waves were white-capping and the edge of the storm was beginning to rock her boat too much to get the oars evenly in the water. Before the storm covered her in darkness she looked back at the direction she hoped the shore was and started to get ready.

VI tied the provisions to the seats and wrestled the oars into the belly of the boat. The canvas that was used to cover the boat was in a heap at the stern. She started to get it over the half of the boat where the food and water was just as the first bits of rain came down on her head. She paused for a moment, something normal people wouldn't, and noticed the rain. She knew what rain was, but she had never felt its touch her before. It felt comforting, like tears that were sweet and loving. The droplets were thick, and cool. For that moment she was lost in an ecstasy of wet comfort. She knew the storm would be brutal, but she just loved the way the rain made her feel free. VI didn't want the feeling to end. Which made the next few seconds so painful for her when the wind whipped the canvas hard against her face as the waves started to twist, rock, and turn the boat in violent thrusts. For probably the forth time in her life she was genuinely scared. She braced her self against the boat and the canvas overhead and started to sob. Over and over again VI thought in her head, 'I have to live, so I can see XJ one day.'

The storm took her back into the bay deeper, faster, and farther than she had done all day rowing the boat. For ten hours the storm raged on over her dragging her along as it went into the bay. Many times she felt like the next wave was about to flip the boat. 'I have to live, so I can see XJ one day.' VI was still echoing in her thoughts.

Finally the storm became too much for the boat and VI could hear the planks on the side start to crack. She started to sob again as she looked around the boat hoping to find the bending plank and hold the boat together. All at one a crack split the boat from port to starboard. The canvassed stern of the boat went into the water and took VI with it. As the provisions tied to the seat dangled in the water she started to frantically peel back the canvas from the stern to get out of the boat. The chunk that she remained with flipped onto its front just as another wave struck the wreck. The force sent her from the underbelly of the boat out into open water.

Besides never being outside in the fresh air she had learned to be a professional swimmer back in the Zaun labs. Any of the missions the Zaun military had planned to use their subjects on could have required some swimming to complete the objective. She was trained intensely for the water. How to swim for hours. How to conserve energy by treading or floating still. Sometimes carrying up to 100 pounds in gear. She once spent 37 hours in the pool and broke a record for her accomplishment. VI had thought often about her many broken records when she was rowing on the calm seas before.

Her training took over and she swam quickly and effortlessly through the rough waters to the capsized boat stern and braced herself to the underbelly refusing to let go again. She was too young to comprehend such a burden like this. Even experienced seamen would have lost their way in this mess and already be drowned by the storm. It could boggle the mind what kind of experiences she had gone through at the labs that could have made VI so well prepared to deal with such an unforgiving storm, at such an incredibly young age.

Exhaustion started to take her as the storm cleared up, and the boat had taken so much damage from the storm it was mostly a raft. The canvas and provisions were long gone and she knew without them she would die of thirst on the sea. She looked up and saw the faded green of the shore thinking, 'I have to live, so I can see XJ one day,' and then she passed out. One last big wave knocked her off the boat/raft and laid her floating on her back motionless drifting with the current to the shoreline.

_Present._

One foot placed quickly in front of the other James Farthen rushed down the hillside to the shore, carrying nothing but a spirit of urgency. Steadily behind him Lana made her way down cradling a med kit. As James neared the lifeless body on the shore he could tell it was a child. It had what looked like a burlap sack made into a dress for clothing. Bright pink hair with slightly magenta sideburns. He wondered, 'Oh my stars, could it be a little girl!' as he approached the child. He gently kneeled down and reached across her to grab her shoulder. Carefully he flipped her onto her back across his knees cradling her head looking her over for damage. "Oh shit," he said aloud as Lana rushed up to the other side of the girl, "She can't be more than five years old." As he softly called out to her, trying to stir her from her unconscious state, Lana opened the med kit and pulled out a stethoscope. Putting it on her ears she reach down the front of the girls burlap sack/dress and felt around listening for heartbeats, breathe, and possibly water in her lungs.

Lana looked up into James' eyes and said, "She still alive, but I need to perform CPR now." With that James laid her down and Lana got into position over the girl. Pinching her nose she breathed a kiss-of-life into the girl's lungs with three separate deep breathes and then moved her hands to start pumping her chest. Five consecutive, harsh pumps were forced onto the little girls frame before Lana went back to breathing again into the girl's mouth.

James knelt there watching it all play out, rubbing his hands across his face and through his hair nervously. "Please be okay little girl." He whimpered.

After repeating her actions five times Lana started to get scared and James could see the way she trembled. It looked like all hope was lost when suddenly the second of three breathes Lana was giving caused the girl to lurch a hefty water cough out and then more and more water poured out with deeper and deeper coughs. Joy instantly plastered both Lana and James' faces.

"Oh Lana you're amazing." James said smiling into Lana's eyes.

Quickly Lana's tone changed to a serious one, "Lift her up gently and get her inside the house."

With that James reached his arms under the girl's shoulders and knees and heaved her up to his chest. He rose to his feet as Lana held the girls head still and the two of them made their way up the hill to the house, watching the girl intently.

When they got inside Lana cleared the throw-pillows from the guest bed and pulled the sheets back to let James set the girl down gently on the bed. Covering her with the sheets Lana pointed out the door. "Bring me my tools." She demanded of James. James complied and brought her a bag full of doctor equipment. As Lana checked the girls breathe with the stethoscope again James went to the kitchen to make coffee, tea, soup, and fresh squeezed juice. He came back with portions of all four for Lana, the girl and himself.

"The girl is too young and weak to have coffee or tea!" Lana said annoyed while she kept looking over the child's body.

James replied patiently, "The coffee and tea is for us the soup and juice I made for her."

At that moment the girl woke up slightly to see the couple sitting around her. On her right sat James, an early middle-aged man with full brown hair cut short and no facial hair. He wasn't too broad or tall and was kind of slender, but not so much so that he looked weak. Sporting a polo shirt and jeans, he looked quite quant and one would believe he was content with his looks and he would agree he was. To her left Lana sat there in a White-coat with pants. She had long blonde hair and looked younger than James even though she was a little older.

James owned a heritance of businesses passed down by his family. He was an only child and so he inherited both of his fathers companies. He is not a business savvy man or one to make good speeches so he had a small board and a spokesman hired to handle the two companies while he was paid for his ownership. The board members made far more money than he did because of this arrangement, but it didn't bother him. Farthen Lumber and Farthen Construction were the two companies he owned. A stable semi-vertical monopoly that ensured the profits would keep the company in the black forever. It was a cushy gig, being the owner, and it freed him up to do community work for the sake of Piltover. His most recent contribution was donating thirty new lampposts to an otherwise unlit part of Piltover's urban area, and offering to cover the costs for five years while the city-state finds a way to set a budget for them later on.

Lana was a highly-praised medical doctor (MD) who took a sabbatical from work three years ago to do free charity work on patients in the rural parts of Piltover. Her husband covered all of the costs for her work. He was more than pleased to do so. Personally her true reason for doing so was to free herself up to have a child with James.

Unfortunately James didn't have and couldn't find the strength to tell her he could never give her kids. Using one of Lana's friend-doctors from the hospital he had himself tested in private and found out he cannot have children. (In our world we call it Klinefelter Syndrome. Basically men with Klinefelters do not produce sperm cells.) He always knew why she took the sabbatical and it crushed him every time they made love that it would lead to nothing. It may have been he was afraid she would leave or that he was afraid how horribly she might be affected by it. He knew she could be emotionally fragile at times and wondered what she would do to herself if she ever knew the truth.

James and Lana simultaneously noticed her eyes opened and leaned in to see the little girl wake. "Hello there," James stuttered softly, whimpering a little as he talked, "how are you feeling? Can you tell us your name?"

"Numb-." The girl paused and then said, "V-I."

Lana spoke next. "Hi, V-I. Are you feeling okay?"

VI looked over at the woman who just spoke and noticed the white coat she was wearing. Her eyes went wide and she sprang from the bed with a blood-curdling scream. "NOOOOO!" She looked down into the medical bag and noticed a sharp metal object, scissors. Running across the bed she grabbed them with her right hand and wrapped her left arm around Lana's throat while she put herself behind the woman, feet bracing on the backrest of Lana's chair. "NOO!" She screamed again. Then she pushed the scissors up against Lana's throat and stared intently at James.

James was in shock from the moment of insanity that had just ensued. "W-w-wa-wait! P-pl-ple-please!" He stuttered out slowly in an alarmed tone,

"V-I! You are okay! You're safe. Just calm down!" Lana exclaimed with panic in her voice and worry in her eyes as she looked into James'. "We are not going to hur-."

"No! Shut up!" VI bellowed cutting Lana off. "I don't LISTEN to WHITE-COATS anymore!"

James nervously stepped closer to them and made VI nervous enough to cut slightly into Lana's throat making her bleed. "No, V-I! Wait! It's all okay. We aren't going to hurt you."

VI hissed a scream "Liar!" And then she dug a little deeper into Lana.

Lana started to sob and shake a little. VI's hold on her throat was steady and the shaking made the wound get a little bigger around the scissors. "Please don't do this V-I!" She sobbed. "We were only trying to help you."

James cut in with any courage he could muster and said, "V-I please listen. I am James and this is my wife Lana," he motioned towards Lana with open hands, "we aren't whoever you think you are. We're just a normal couple living out here on are own. Please don't do this. Please, I'm begging you." He lost it at 'begging' and started to tear-up and cry.

VI leaned in close to Lana's left ear and whispered sternly, "I will never take an order from a White-coat ever again." With that she drew back the scissors and drove them deep into Lana's throat. Giving Lana four deep gashes across her throat and pulling the scissors out on the last so she could push her body hard onto the bed.

James stood there trying to breathe as he stared at Lana. VI looked at James with fury in her eyes. James met her gaze with a look of horror on his face. She was angry and waiting for him to make the first move. James collapsed to the bed and crawled to Lana exhaling huge sobs of anguish. VI reacted quickly to his motion and moved over Lana's corpse to grab James by the hair with her left hand. She jerked his head back and readied herself to strike at his throat, while raising her right hand holding the scissors to cut deep into him. VI was about to bring him down when she locked eyes with him. She saw the red rings in his eyes and she was instantly reminded of XJ's eyes right before she was going top shoot her with the zapping pistol.

'Love.' She thought. 'He is showing his love for the one he's lost. Just like X-J showed when I was told to kill her.' She let him go and he ignored her as he placed his hands around Lana's head. He laid his head on hers and cried. Silently at first, and then loudly like a badly played, musical instrument. VI stood there over Lana's body, perfectly still. Head down, eyes closed, arms limp at her side, clutching the bloody scissors in her right hand. 'What have I done?'

At that she dropped the scissors, got off the bed, grabbed the med kit and left the room. Heading to the front door she grabbed a leather bag sitting near the door. Inside were gold coins and some clothes meant for someone much larger than she was. She took one last blank look at the guest bedroom and then left the house sprinting down the road clutching both bags.

Back in the cottage's guest bed James' head still laid down on Lana's. Externally everything was obvious, but inside his head everything was a mess. He played the last few minutes over and over, again and again trying to not believe what just happened, praying it wasn't real. Hoping he was still in his sleep and that all of this was a horrible, horrible nightmare. But he knew it wasn't. Occasionally thoughts came up like: 'Why didn't I tell her we couldn't have kids?; Why did I just stand there doing nothing?; I was hoping this girl could have been the daughter I couldn't give Lana.; Maybe if she knew about me she wouldn't have been here today?; She would have been safely back at work.; Why? Why? Why? Please someone tell me why? I couldn't save her. I couldn't save her' He sobbed on Lana's head, blending his tear with her blood for six hours. Then he cried until exhaustion took him into sleep.

_Three days later._

It was a tough task to make it into Piltover. The road was a scary place so VI kept to cutting through the woods, but every time she would cut into someone lawn, they would yell at her to get out. After a while she just stayed to the edge of the road hoping the next turn would lead into the city. When she finally got into the city she became quickly amazed with the wonderful buildings she saw. VI had cut down the clothes in the leather bag to fit her. She had pocketed the money and sold the bags and the tools to shady street merchants. She had money but no where to go so she just sat in an alley balling hers eyes out into her knees. She didn't have shoes on the trip so her feet were bruised and cut-up. All she wanted to do was take back what she did. Her thoughts would turn to Lana and James and how they tried to get her to see reason. Thoughts about XJ flooded her mind constantly. VI couldn't figure out what to do next. Where to go from here? Why, she couldn't just find peace? Her mind kept trying to wrap itself around why she did what she did and what did the White-coats do to her. Over and over she played out the struggle in her mind. 'Who am I and why did I do that to James and Lana?' Her thoughts were all centered around one desire, 'Someone please help me.'


	4. New, Not So Friendly, Faces

**Chapter 4: New, Not So Friendly, Faces**

"Stop thief!" Shouted the hextech shopkeeper, who looked way too much out of shape to run anywhere. "Someone stop that girl!"

One year has passed in VI's life since her incident with the Farthen's and the memory of that day had long ago been pushed to the back of her mind. She was somewhere past her sixth year of life now and she was running hard and fast as if she was leaping with every stride. Her attire was made up of tattered clothes she had stolen from local orphanages, she had only joined any to loot them. Her pink and magenta hair had reached her shoulders and was as greasy as one could imagine. Showering was the last thing on her mind. Cradled in her arms were hextech parts. Techmaturgical instruments and engine components that didn't belong to her, but of course belonged to the obese shopkeeper yelling after her. She needed all of them to make weapons, cooking tools, and to finally create the custom vehicle she had been designing for five months. Behind her crowds were forming around the shop she had just stole from. Three people had gone to different police phones to call for help. She began to worry if she'd make it to the alley she had setup her escape at.

Peeling sharply around the corner she reached the alley and quickly set the hextech gear and parts down to search behind a crate. Finding a duffle-bag, she had stashed there earlier, VI loaded the parts into it and closed it up tight. Placing it into the crate she made sure it couldn't have been seen as anything more than a sack in a crate. She hoped that it would still be here when she got back. Just to be sure she had placed the labels on the crate in a way that allowed her to track it if it was moved, and also so that the people who would move it would eventually put it right back near here anyways. Learning to manipulate the shipping system in Piltover was an easy task for her. On most other occasions she was able to get the information on certain packages and have them sent somewhere she could easily retrieve them later. Making the post office an accessory to her crimes.

VI heard the hum of sirens in the distance. 'They are closing in really fast this time,' she thought, 'better find a new stash spot for next time.' With that she ran to the edge of the alleyway and opened up a garbage chute door. The doors on these things are fairly large so that any trash within a meter of girth would easily go down the chute. On the outside of the door she placed an "Out of Order" adhesive sign, one of a huge bundle which she had stolen via the post office's false deliveries three months back. She didn't expect it to stop the police, but even if the police do or don't check it she wanted to keep others from dumping trash down after her. Attached to the inside of the door was a long rectangular board with six wheels, straps, and a lever attached to each side. It was a rolling board that used two crude handbrakes to provide control over speed, steering, and allow the passenger to decrease forward momentum on a declining slope. Detaching it from the door she had just enough time to position herself on it, strap in and start off down the garbage chute before the police reached the alley.

A loud and low-toned whining sound bombarded her ears as she raced down the tunnel picking up a lot of speed. VI had to have reached 130 kph at the most during her ride. The start of the tunnel was always a straight down run to gain momentum for the garbage because near the end all the garbage chutes started to bend around to dump at a single point.

Keeping her focus up to avoid the debilitating confusion of tunnel vision she saw three red dots go up past her as she went down. It was one of many signs she had pasted in the garbage chutes around Piltover. Two red dots passed across her vision. Then one red dot passed, and she pulled back fairly hard on both levers. VI could feel the inertia put pressure on her straps but her experience in the tunnels allowed her to stay calm. She spotted the yellow dot on her left and eased-off on the right brake slightly allowing her to stay level and in a controlled motion forward for the left turn in the tunnel. The garbage easily makes the turns without control, but her board required a balanced plane to maintain speed and control so she would occasionally find it necessary to shift her angle to accommodate the turns. All six wheels spun freely around on ball bearings to allow for easy angling. Two yellow dots with dashes underneath them appeared on the right followed by one on the left. This meant it would be too quick turns right and then one sharp turn left. VI mentally prepared herself for the turns. She steered through them like a professional and kept going down strong.

In her past attempts to escape down the garbage chutes she had run into a lot of trouble. Before the board, she tried to run down the chute with her stolen goods in tow. After only two heists the police had started sending officers down after her attached to repelling lines. VI had to ditch the goods to block the chute for her escape. When she started to use the board she would find it difficult to go faster than 50 kph. The bulky goods, no matter how small and light, made it hard to take turns at high speeds. That wasn't a problem until the police had once beaten her to the end of the line. She gave them a run for their money as she hoofed it back up the tube carrying her board and the stolen equipment. A team of them chased her back up the tube. When she spotted other officers repelling down near the top she turned to see the officers far down the tunnel struggling with their hunched down walking. She got back on her board cradled her prizes in her arms and let the board get full speed in the tunnel. As she came to the officers down below she noticed they had braced themselves to catch her. So VI hurled the goods at them. When they fell over each other she shifted her weight to the right and held a firm position while she did a 360 degree turn around them in the tunnel. As she passed overhead of the bewildered officers she put on a smirk and screamed, "That's why you always strike first, morons!" After she got to the end she ran to one of her normal hiding places while the heat died down, as per her self-designed protocol.

Besides being forced to continually switch escape points, in a seemingly random pattern, VI had long since created an optimum escape plan for any situation. As of two months ago she now has labeled the inside of every garbage chute in the city. She has boards on the doors of each chute and extra boards stashed around the city. Within a year she had managed to create her own underground society, focusing on and consisting of exclusively her. The intensive wilderness and urban survival training she had received as a test subject of the Zaun military has allowed her to make Piltover into not only her home, but also her kingdom. By understanding and circumventing the order to Piltover's many organized aspects, VI has found it easy to make any situation work to her advantage. If she had a desire for or a use for it she could steal money easily. Her only real interests were centered on hextech creations. Her own designs of course. The ideas she had usually led her to create a weapon and this most often disappointed her. VI's training in Zaun mostly had to do with creating or repairing or retrofitting or reengineering anything to support completing assassination missions. It was no surprise to even her that the designs she started off making for something like a small four-wheeled vehicle would lead her to start making a tank. The big issue is a tank sticks out like a sore thumb in the City of Progress, and war machines aren't a popular form of mobile progress.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, VI slowed after seeing the twenty red rings designed to indicate 20 meters to the end. When she came to the edge she stopped, got off the board, strapped it to her back, and positioned herself on the outside, braced to the inside of the pipe. The drop from the pipe was 30 meters straight down. On top of the tunnel pipe she grabbed a rope-ladder strapped down around the pipe. VI swung herself out onto the rope-ladder and climbed down carful not to make the ropes swing too much. When she got to the bottom she used a rope on the opposite side, tied to the steel beams holding up the tunnel end, to pull the rope-ladder back up and over the pipe. Sometimes the dump got full before the yard workers started destroying or recycling garbage materials. It was safer not to have the ladder so close to the ground when she was done with it. This idea was an original preemptive tactic.

VI turned around contemplating whether to go to an eastern hiding spot or a western one. After her third step forward a hand broke free from the mess of rubbish near her path and gripped her hard by her left ankle. Following it four more hands dragging arms behind them grabbed her other ankle, her wrists, and one lightly but firmly gripped her by the throat. VI remained still and calm. The bodies attached to these appendages appeared out of the garbage piles they were hidden in. They revealed to her a squad of misfit criminals dressed in clothing that was meant for camouflaging themselves in the dump.

A sixth man rose from the garbage ahead of her and pulled the mask he was wearing back over his head to reveal a scruffy face. He was middle aged and the scars on his face showed that he had a challenging life, indicating he has only ever known the rough streets of Piltover. VI noticed his brown long hair and beard with hazel eyes. His skin was naturally brown, but it looked like a shinny tan because of the layer of filth built-up on him from years in the slums with very few baths. They all looked like they rarely took baths.

"Greetings," said the sixth man in a cheerful tone, an awkward occurrence for such a crazy moment, "My name is Barkley and I am the leader of this motley crew known simply as Bedlam."

VI stared into Barkley's eyes with fierce rage, but continued to stay quiet and still.

Almost seeming to ignore her gaze Barkley started to speak again, "We have been monitoring your actions over the last year. Would you like to know what we think of you?"

Sternly VI responded with a hint of humor, "If I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you."

"Splendid, young bitch, splendid!" Barkley replied in an enthusiastic tone. "We had expected you would have an arrogant attitude, but we never expected for you to respond in such a brash way, I love it."

VI just kept looking straight at him with unflinching features of rage.

"Anyways," continued Barkley, "We know you have the ability to manipulate Piltover's many organized systems. We would like to have that ability ourselves or at least find someone to do it for us. Do you understand where I am going with this?"

VI scoffed with a laughing tone, "Yeah. You morons need someone to do what you can't and you'd like that someone to be me." VI was finding her new interactions with other people fun. For the past year she had little or no interaction with other people. Besides asking for seemingly useless information in a cute and innocent way from a multitude of hextech shopkeepers and city officials earlier on in the year, she didn't really have a reason to talk to anyone. No friends. No family. No XJ. Nobody she had a desire to really get to know or at least talk to regularly. Continuing she stated, "Let me guess. I don't have a choice."

"Well actually you do," admitted Barkley, "You could refuse and be killed here and now or if you escaped, then later when one of my men catch up to you." Barkley started to grow a huge smile.

VI was trained to blend into groups so it was no surprise when she replied, "Well in that case I think it would be nice to have a group of like-minded individuals looking out for me." She could tag along with these guys without disrupting her own life and if need be she could betray them to the Piltover police and continue her normal life. This seemed like a good fit anyways. A criminal mastermind like her being given influential control over someone else's misfit gang, win-win here.

"Wait now young lady." Barkley spoke out in a patronizing tone, "We need to know your level of commitment."

"Screw this!" The gang member holding by the throat blurted out. "None of us want this dumb little bitch to join us!" Covered in his disguise VI couldn't tell what his features were besides his tall and lanky statue and his blue eyes.

"Hmm." Barkley let out. "Does anyone else feel this way? Josh, Pratley, Marcus, Silk, do any of you agree with Derek?" It didn't matter much to expose their names at this point because VI was either going to die right here or join them anyways. The four others continued their firm grips, but gave no signs of response.

Derek continued his rant, "Come on you assholes! Do you really want this little shit in our gang!?"

Still they said and did nothing.

"It would seem that you are the only one who feels she shouldn't join us." Barkley interjected. "I would find it problematic if you can't get along with her."

"Well then let me make it easy for you, sir. The rest of you let her go." Derek commanded.

The other four looked up and towards Barkley. "Go ahead, let her go." He commanded with a more respectable tone than Derek's. They complied and filed in behind Barkley.

Continuing to hold VI by the throat Derek said, "I hate the idea of being associated with this little bitch. So why don't we let her prove herself to us by fighting me to the death?" Derek said coldly turning his head to face Barkley. An evil smirk arose on his face.

"Very well Derek, we'll take a vote. As it was your proposal you don't get a vote." The standard practice of their big group decisions. It's weird to think that they use organized democratic vote being that they are criminals. "All in favor signify by saying aye, all opposed signify by saying nay. Aye."

Josh, "Aye."

Pratley, "Nay."

Marcus, "Aye."

Silk, "Sustained."

"And so the ayes have it," Barkley said firmly, "you may now commence with your challenge. This will be a no holds barred fight to the death. Good luck to both of you. Derek, release her and I will begin the countdown. Young lady, if you win this fight you will have proven yourself worthy to join us." Derek let her out of his grip and Barkley started to count down from ten.

VI realized her only weapons on hand were a 3-inch blade and the board. She decided to keep the blade hidden in her pocket until she accessed Derek's fight style. She would use the board as a shield letting Derek show his strengths and weaknesses as she stays on the defensive. After devising a strategy for taking him down she would reveal the knife only right before using it to strike at a vulnerable point.

"Four, three," Barkley kept counting down. Neither of them has made a move yet. Derek knows it's against the rules. VI is waiting on Derek to make the first move. "Two, one. Fight!"

In one crisp motion Derek reaches into the collar of his camouflage suit with his right hand and whips out a blunderbuss pistol. A sudden realization took a hold of VI that 'no holds barred' means 'no holds barred' and she quickly settled into a calm phase for her reactionary attack.

While starting a run straight into Derek she hurls the board towards his head. He easily knocks it aside with his free arm and starts to level the gun at VI. But VI was too quick to close the gap. She jumps up and grabs his arm with both hands while simultaneously bracing her self against his chest with both feet. Hanging from his arm she positions her head next to the pistol so he can't get a good shot off on her face. Placing her right hand on his grip around the pistols handle she grips her left hand around his elbow. In a well practiced, muscle-memory, motion she twists his elbow into his chest while jerking the arm back towards her, dislocating his right shoulder, before Derek can swing his left hand around to grab her. As he crumples backwards from the pain VI follows him down pushing his right hand holding the pistol back in towards him so the barrel is aimed straight at his head. He hits the ground hard and blinks his eyes once to see that the tables have turned. Before he can mutter an obscenity, VI pulls back on the hammer with her thumb, left hand still holding his elbow, feet planted on his chest and upper left arm. She makes sure to not pull the hammer back far enough to lock it and lets it swing forward without restraint. _BLAM-CRACK!_ The gun explodes a round chunk of lead out of its barrel and straight through Derek's head, impacting the ground behind him.

Most of his blood pools on the ground around his head as VI lets go of him and reaches into her pocket to pull out her knife. Opening the collapsible blade she reaches down with her left hand to hold what remained of his head still. With the blade in her right hand she etches the roman numerals V and I into the skin under his left eye. Not even she knows why she did it but she did. And it made her feel good. And that scared her.

_Two weeks later._

VI had settled right into her new gang without a hitch. Who knew a bunch of greedy criminals would have the same desire to rob places around Piltover for whatever they wanted? Besides time spent back at the gangs headquarters she didn't see to much of the features her other crew members had. They all wore different camouflages for the different slums and areas of the city-state they were in at any given time. She wore camouflage herself but it was all clothing meant for a girl her age. From pretty clothes to weathered garments, she wore outfits for whichever place around Piltover or whatever use to a job it became most appropriate. Now she had placed stashed wardrobes around the city-state for herself and her crew members so they could go unnoticed around the streets. It also made her thievery a lot quicker. Stealing things the gang needed and dumping the goods with a member while she raced to a garbage chute to make an escape. She revealed her systems of stealing deliveries to Barkley so he could join in on the fun. With her in the crew Piltover's black-market tripled in worth within the first week. Now crime was on the rise.

Skipping along a dolly in her right hand humming a tune VI had made-up the night before she rounded the corner to see a crowd gathered around a merchants table. Creeping her way around and through the legs of people in the crowd she got in close enough to see the merchant putting on a show with his wares. He had hextech jewelry that made fancy holographic images in the air as they were activated by the different ways they were touched. VI pondered the applications of this techmaturgy to be used to make 3D holographic models of structures to use in planning heists with the Bedlam gang. VI spotted her mark as the huge and bulky necklace on the right front corner of the merchants table stand.

Without drawing attention she looked around the crowd and spotted Silk in the middle of them making it too obvious he was watching her. She signaled to him in a hand-signal code she designed for the gang hoping he could remember the signs she made. With her right hand she made a ninety degree angle with her thumb and index finger. Silk nodded and retreated to setup the hand-off exchange route with the other gang members. She pretended to be amazed by the merchants show for a full minute before leaving the crowd to find where he had positioned himself to signify the beginning of her escape route.

As she exited the crowd she started thinking about how the merchant was wearing a fake beard, but let it go when she realized everyone probably saw the obvious falseness of his facial hair. But what really puzzled VI was how a wandering merchant had gotten that huge scar on his left eye. And why it left him with a completely silver pupil. That can't be fake, can it? She pushed the thought out of her mind and started turning nonchalantly to find where Silk had gotten off to.

VI finally spotted him in an alley a block east of the merchant's stand and saw him raise and lower an open hand signifying it was clear to start. Holding up a fist and releasing it out to show she was going ahead with the heist she pushed her way back through the crowd. This time making sure to nudge an opening in the crowd to make her quick escape. As soon as she reached the stand she cut off the merchant's rant to say as cutely as possible, "Do you have a necklace that would fit my dolly?" VI placed the dolly on the table so that it faced the merchant sitting down. The crowd instantly let out a loud unanimous sigh of "AWWWW!"

"Well sweet little girl let me see what I have in stock." The merchant said in a voice that VI could tell was faked. The merchant smiled and turned around to sort through his crates. The instant he had turned completely around she released the dolly, grabbed the bulky hextech necklace she had marked for the heist with her left hand, and started sprinting into the gap she made swinging her right arm at the shins of anyone that was closing in on her escape route. After getting out of the crowd she reached into her right pocket to pull out a small handheld device with an antenna and a single button on it. Just then a shot of electricity whizzed past her head on the left and she turned around to see people running in opposite directions from the merchant's stand. The merchant himself was holding a firm stance pointing a zapping pistol towards her that was charging its next round. VI recognized it from police files she had stolen in the mail as a decommissioned police zapping pistol that officers hadn't been reequipped with for three years. He had to be ex-police or at least involved with them.

Before the next charge was complete she turned back to run towards her destination and pressed the button on her handheld device. The dolly exploded in a flash of light and quickly released a thick cloud of smoke that flooded the street around it. She reached the alley and noticed that Silk wasn't where he needed to be to get the goods from her so VI panicked and dropped the necklace behind a few bins before running off to locate an escape tunnel. She ran through a multitude of streets and alleys to find the closest garbage chute and when she got to one and tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. 'Sabotage,' she thought to herself, 'they know my escape routes or the gang is selling me out to the police. Damn them I knew I should have done away with them early on.'

Just as she released her grip on the door and pulled away from it she saw what she thought was a net whip past her. Glancing to her right down two blocks of alleyways VI spotted what looked like a teenaged girl holding a rifle. 'Whoa! Did she fire a net from that gun or am I losing it here.' Quickly remembering that she was on the run she ignored the young female marksman and took off around the alleyway corner in search of another tunnel.

VI decided that it was best to skip the next three tunnels she ran across and try her luck at the fourth. It opened and a board was latch to the doors inside. She quickly let out a sigh before dislodging the board and strapping herself into it to start the ride. Still holding the door up to get in she heard a gunshot just as another net struck the door she was holding. She released the door long enough to let the net wrap around it, but then caught it before it slammed down on her head. At the beginning of the alleyway VI saw the teenaged marksman again and for a second thought, 'Wow! For a police officer she sure does look pretty!' And then banished the thought and refocused her attention to the situation at hand.

The teenaged girl calmly stated, "There's nowhere to hide, little girl."

VI ignored the cackling remark and asked simply, "What is that rifle you're holding?" Curious about the weapon she has never seen before.

The teenager replied, "Meet the long gun of the law. May I ask what you think you were doing?" The girl still had the rifle trained on VI in a steady stance.

"Nothing much," replied VI with a smirk, "just a little smash and grab!" And with that VI leaped into the tunnel feet first as another net was launched right behind her. When she landed down with the board's wheels on the tunnel she noticed that this time she had been wrapped in the net. Slowly sputtering down the tunnel the heat from the shot made the net burn any of her exposed flesh. Not enough to cause damage but enough so that it hurt to move. Weights at all ends of the net had wrapped around each other encasing her in its grip. Fighting the pain from the heated ropes she got out her knife and quickly sawed her way out of the net so she could be free to ride down the tunnel with ease.

As she went down the tunnel at a normal pace she reflected on what had just transpired. The heist had gone wrong. It couldn't be the gang because it was obvious the two police officers were working alone so they couldn't have turned any gang members. Whoever these two were she didn't recognize them from the police files she had so if they are not new then they must be some separate division from the police. Maybe it was the sheriff and one of his deputies. VI didn't have much info on them because their organization used archaic and analog methods to keep records. She was sure it would be hard to intercept information on them from the police if they delivered it all in person. But the big questione remained, if they knew so much about her tactics, could they just have been watching them or had they coordinated their sting with the police department and got informed of the tunnels before hand? So many unknowns surrounded her with this situation and made her scared that she might not find the guys at the hideout.

Dots and dashes followed by rings brought her to the end of the line and before peeking out she waited two minutes to see if someone would come in to get her. Then she peered out the hole and saw no one so she moved to get the rope-ladder. When she looked up she was grabbed by the collar and hoisted up in the air by an arm dangling her over the 30 meter dead drop to the dump. She looked into the attackers eyes and recognized who it was.

"WHAT HAPPENED!?" Barkley barked loudly at her. He looked furious and wasn't wearing his entire dump outfit.

"It was a sting!" She replied sharply while grunting to get a grip on his right forearm as to hold herself up off the back of her collar.

"And how is it that you, our mastermind tactician, didn't notice it before you started the heist?" He questioned firmly.

"I wasn't expecting them to be able to set us up so well. No police ever could in the past. All this means is that our tactic has to change dramatically. Also we need to move our headquarters." VI replied.

Barkley sighed and set her down to stand on the top of the pipe in front of him. "We have already started moving the hideout, but you need to understand that if you can't outsmart the police than we are just going to get rid of you. Your skill, talent, and genius are the only values you have to us and without it we have no use for you."

"I understand," She said in a calm tone hiding her fear. "I will not let this happen again. I will bring hell down on the police department for this. For now on VI stands for VITIATE!" (Look it up)


	5. Blood For Some, Joy For Others

_I didn't want to do this because I wanted the mystery of my story to unravel as the story progressed, but certain people have convinced me, graciously, to include some explanation of the bizarre children in my story. This is only a quick note to let you see what I see. _

_VI and XVIIJ start out at five and three years old at the same time that Caitlyn is 14. I have only recently become aware that VI in the lore is the younger of the two, but I started this story from what I knew, so I consider this small detail only a slight annoyance. VI shall remain the elder in my story. VI and XVIIJ are genetically altered human life forms. It is better to put them in the sub-human category or humanoid. They will develop into what we normally reach at ten years old before they are three. They grow fast to support a quickly growing brain. Then they will level off until the normal age of adolescence picks them back up into normal development. At an infant state, human brains are very intelligent and we lose that core intelligence as our bodies grow. I wanted to give a scenario where the newborn brain is given the ability to grow unhindered by the body's slower development. If the first chapter had images then you would see the two girls as if they were twelve and ten even though they were five and three. If you already caught on to this kind of Sci-Fi then I thank you and hope you write something or have written something yourself. For you have delved into the pure essence of imagination that all writers use, and you should not be afraid to show us your vision. Thank you. _

**Chapter 5: Blood For Some, Joy For Others**

_One year ago. After VI was flushed._

"The late entry was the victor," said the a Zaun military official with two stars on each of his shoulders. "How did that happen? Were you idiots trying to save the best for last to impress me? Because I would never entertain such a pathetic action."

The tall one beat the short one to a reply, "No general. The late entry subject was only late because we had to settle which of our remaining two candidates were going to continue with the final prelims."

"I swear I will put you two in the pool and flush you myself if you delay the progress of this program again." This stern tone of words came from the Department Head that was standing beside and slightly behind the right side of the general. He had a standard white coat with three gold rings around the collar to signify his position in the program. The four of them were in his office discussing what had happened during the tests.

The general cocked his head slightly to direct a question at the Department Head, "You told me these two lab doctors were just as serious about this program as the rest of us. Were you lying to me, to cover for them?"

"No sir." The Department head said truthfully. "And they are not doctors, they are simple scientists, they haven't earned doctorates yet. Their main studies involve human physiological development and genetic manipulation. Mr. Green and Mr. Parson do tend to be embarrassments, but never so much as now."

Mr. Green (the tall one) interrupted the present conversation to ask, "General? I believe the major concern you're addressing is how it did so well. Correct?"

Turning back to Mr. Green with a rigid expression the general replied, "Yes, please inform me what happened and why."

"The "what" is obvious from the footage. The "why" is better left to its original keeper, Mr. Parson." Mr. Green stated as he pointed his open right palm at the short one.

Mr. Parson perked up to the chance to tell the "why" in a bragging manner. "Yes sir. If it's alright with you I would like to give you a brief history of why it was the victor?"

The general looked at Mr. Parson with the same rigid expression plastered across his face. "Continue."

"Very well," Mr. Parson started, "Number 18, as it is referred to, is a model of genetic engineering. Currently it is three years of age, which is within the normal range of the 3-6 years old subjects in the program's preliminary phase. As with most subjects it has grown early to over 90 cm and if our genetic manipulation takes hold it won't grow again until the normal age of puberty. Muscle strength and bone density are at an all time high in this one, there was another that beat it by at least half or more, but it has been rejected from the program. It's a shame really; the other one could break through stone with its punches. Number 18 somehow acquired the ability to repress sociological conscious emotions for other humans. In layman's terms it can refuse to acknowledge its basic functions for both sympathy and empathy. Or even more simple terms it does not care for the pain of others." He paused to make sure he still had the general's attention.

"Go on." The general exclaimed.

"Yes," Mr. Parson continued, "with this ability we have seen it willing to take the shortest route to an objective, destroying anyone or anything in its way. As you can see from the video, both it and the other subjects were instructed to select a melee weapon for one of the tests. No projectile weapons were a part of this test besides spears. Given one weapon a piece it must have pondered the success of its mission would increase if it had more than one. So in the first stage of the final prelims, it circumvented the point to the test by starting a free-for-all bloodbath before any signal was given to begin.

"Its starting group consisted of 64 test subjects that would go in sub-groups of eight to find the best of each of them. All of them were given a selection of weapons before the first sub-group was formed and instructed to take their places on the eight pads that formed a circle to show the boundaries of the arena. The others were ordered to spread out around the outside of the arena to await their time to fight. The arena is 35 meters across, so there is plenty of room to fight smaller battles before the last two finish each other off. The subjects wore eight separate colors of jumpsuits: brown; red; purple; blue; green; orange; yellow; and black. Number 18 was in the blue sub-group and when the first sub-group, purple, took their places to wait for the match to begin, 18 moved to the back of the crowd in a stealthy manner. We almost didn't notice her get back there."

Mr. Green moved some controls on the console the video was displayed to zoom in on XVIIJ. Mr. Parson kept talking as he pointed at the key actions XVIIJ took, to do what happened next. "Looking closely at 18 here, it started some kind of conversation with the male subject directly ahead of it. I apologize; there are no audio recording devices in the arena area so there will be no sound to the footage. Number 18 had selected a short, straight blade for its weapon. The subject she started to talk to held a chain-link mace with a spiked ball on the end. The subject that 18 spoke to kept its gaze forward as it continually tried to make hand gestures for 18 to leave it alone. Now, right here 18 places its free left hand on the other subject's right shoulder to make one more remark before driving the blade into the other subject's right kidney with 18's right hand. It was a clean kill; we've seen 18 do it to countless unarmed prisoners before. Number 18 knows how to kill well.

"From there number 18 gets a hold of the other subject's mace and starts an incredible slaughter of any and all other subjects in its vicinity. Smashing skulls and slashing throats of the unprepared and unaware subjects watching the first fight. The round was set to begin at the end of a countdown. The subjects were informed beforehand that they were not to leave the pad before the start of the match; if they did they would be unknowingly shot by snipers in a pillbox suspended from the ceiling above the arena. As soon as number 18 had struck its third victim in the back of the head with a downward swinging of the mace, the match was signaled to start and the subjects in the arena began their charge at one another. Confused, the sniper team hadn't been given instructions on how to handle what number 18 had started doing. Throughout the entire debacle no shots were fired. As number 18 was racking up kill after brutal kill, the other subjects, turning to see the commotion, must have thought in the same way as 18 or were just swept up in the confusion of the situation. They all started to fight around the outside of the arena, killing one another in a crazy display of no holds barred fighting."

The general's jaw had dropped at the sight of XVIIJ's fourth and fifth kills. She spun the blade in her hand to hold it downwards and brought it up to stab hilt-deep into the fourth victim's soft tissue between the neck and shoulder plate before swinging herself around on the his body to let her stolen mace strike the fifth victim square in the right side of her head tearing away and severing the jaw clean off the girl's face. The general almost brought his hand up in an involuntary motion when the fifth victim struggled with her hands to hold in the blood oozing out the hole in her head. But any witness to her struggle could tell she wasn't long for this world. Mr. Parson noticed this whole reaction from the general, smirked slightly and continued his recounting of the events.

"We organized this log to focus the many camera recordings of the incident on number 18's actions. Whenever you see its face in one of the cameras you can notice the look of pure pleasure that it had as it committed this act of disorganized slaughter. We have always known it to enjoy pain, inflicted on others as well as any pain against itself. It lives for mass murder and destruction. Mr. Green and I were overjoyed when it was selected as our candidate for the final prelims, well I mean I was. You can plainly see why. It is the perfect killer. Aside from its shortcomings in techmaturgical studies, it will be the perfect tool for the military."

As the free-for-all continued between the last 37 of 64 subjects standing, it became obvious which of the children were doing the best and which were going to be slaughtered soon enough. Fights in groups of twos, threes, fours, and fives, were raging throughout the arena and the outer edges. Injured children, too hurt to continue were being "mercy-killed" by the others warring around them. Some were slipping out of their stances from them blood-drenched floor and being killed for the mistakes. Inaudible mouths showed the blood-curdling screams of the victims of each fight, as life was taken from them in the bloodlust of their enemies. The precision fighting styles of each subject made the whole scene look like a miniature version of a battle between fully grown, battle-hardened veterans of hand-to-hand combat. If someone who had never seen a battle witnessed a piece from the horror of this event, they would lose all of their innocence with a few seconds of the continuing bloodbath. It was dreadful terror beyond all sane belief.

When it was nearing the end, XVIIJ was left facing the other two remaining subjects. They were situated in the most open space of the floor, not occupied by defeated corpses. The two others, one a boy and the other a girl stood in a triangle in relation to XVIIJ and each other. They both were looking straight at XVIIJ with pale, horror-stricken faces, but she had her head low with eyes peering up looking at both of them with an evil expression of joy across her face. Her whole body was covered in the many sprays of blood she had poured out of her victims. Instead of showing signs she had wiped blood off any part of herself, as both the others had, she looked like she wore the splattered blood with pride. During the course of the battle XVIIJ had kept the mace in her left hand, but traded off the short blade for a double-bladed Gladius in her right. Both weapons looked as though they were originally painted crimson red. The other two had their own assortment of chosen weapons. The girl had a small shield with two blades extending from both ends in her left hand and short spear with a spiked back end in her right. The boy held two long swords. All their weapons were covered in blood.

The two others must have decided, in some unseen way, to take down XVIIJ first. They started moving away from one another and around towards XVIIJ to attack from both flanks at the same time. XVIIJ didn't move a muscle until they both struck out at her at the same time. Putting the double-bladed Gladius out to cover the blows of a double strike from the boy on her right she also swung the mace out to wrap the chain around the girls spear. As she parried the attack on her left she pulled the spear behind her to send its momentum forward using the girl's attack to land a jab into the boy's stomach behind XVIIJ. Then she pushed into the girl to start her counterattack. As the boy reeled back behind her from the pain, XVIIJ closed the gap between her and the other girl's shield making it a liability for movement against XVIIJ. Bringing her blade up and down to attack the other girl, XVIIJ used her weapon to cleave the girl's left wrist, holding the shield, clean off her arm. Dropping the spear to grasp her severed wrist with her right hand, the other girl back-peddled away from XVIIJ, only to have the spiked mace ball impale her skull on the right side of her head from XVIIJ's final strike. Reeling the ball back from the other girl's dented head, XVIIJ swung around to face the boy with a huge, full-toothed smile.

The boy's demeanor changed to fury as he lunged towards XVIIJ with both swords swinging in a vertical strike together to chop her in half at the waist. She dropped the mace and jumped up and landed on the blades as they came together before she reached out the double-bladed Gladius and flicked two deep cuts across his left and right pectorals with two flicks or her wrist. She fell down between the blades with grace and landed on both feet as he released his grip on both weapons simultaneously. He fell to his knees, head down, bleeding from his chest and stomach. It was obvious that he was defeated. XVIIJ started laughing uncontrollably as she fell on her back hugging her stomach. She giggled and rolled on the floor for a full minute before getting up to finish him off.

She approached him and carefully grabbed the top of his head with her left hand to hold it up looking at her. She used one side of the double-bladed Gladius to start carving the roman numerals V and I on the skin under his left eye. The pain made him grab at her left arm with both hands and gasp out what could only be seen as screams of pain. Still holding his head with the weapon near his eye XVIIJ looked up at the nearest camera and her expression changed from joy to worry. Then she looked back down at the boy and continued to place the letters: X; I; and J around where the V and I were. Forming XVIIJ on the skin under his eye. He stopped screaming and began to sob, noticeably. She dropped her Gladius and went to grab the two blades he dropped. Approaching him again she stopped momentarily as his lips read a screaming 'please' over and over again. She said something in return that would be lip-read later as, "Seriously, screaming helps… not at all." With that she brought the sword in her right hand vertically chopping halfway into his neck and sent the sword in her left hand the same way through the left side finishing the removal of his head from his shoulders. She looked back at the camera nearest to her and put on a big grin while she stared at it with her huge pink eyes until a guard came to escort her out of the arena.

"As you can see," started Mr. Parson, "number 18 broke the rules and ended the entire point of the final prelims. The best eight remaining from each group were supposed to go into another arena, full of pillboxes and blocks for cover, to do a different free-for-all with all varieties of weapons and equipment. Projectiles, body armor, grenades, the works. But it made that test impossible to be setup. Now we are stuck with only it."

The general was still in shock, as well as the Department Head who tried very hard to conceal it. However, for reasons only understood by them, Mr. Green and Mr. Parson were unfazed by the events that had occurred on the display. In fact they looked almost joyful about it.

Regaining his composure, the general replied, "What's done is done. There is no sense wasting time with a punishment. In any case number 18 is the victor and stands as the finished product of these preliminaries. Begin its training for the field. I want it ready to work for us in six years time."

Mr. Green interjected, "Sir. That is only going to happen if she makes it through the rest of the program."

"You think she won't?" The general said in a quizzical tone as he motioned towards the display.

Mr. Parson responded to the general's question in a joyful tone. "Have no worries, all of you. Number 18 will be ready."

_Six years have passed._

_Clang, Clang!_

'No more tests.' XVIIJ pleaded in her thoughts.

_Clang, Clang!_

'Please, no more tests, I've done them all at least ten times each.'

_Clang, Clang!_

'Maybe I'll make my own test and see how many guards I can kill before they bring me down.'

_Clang, Clang!_

'Clang, Clang! Clang, Clang! Is that all their paid to do? Just "Clang, Clang" on my door 'til I respond. Ugh, what a sad life they must lead.'

_Clang, Clang!_

'Ooooo, if I had an instrument I could make it into a song.'

_CLANG, CLANG!_

'Anxious, aren't they. They wanna see me kill some more? Or see if I found more friends in the darkness? You don't have any friends. Yeah, you're right, you're not my friend but one of them is. Hehehehe.'

_CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!_

"All right dear, I'm coming." XVIIJ finally replied.

A deep voice came in on the speaker of her cell, "You know the drill 18, hands on the pads."

XVIIJ did a handstand, and placed her feet up on two pads next to the door, "Ok, like this?"

"We don't have patience for your games, 18. Don't make us electrify the room again." The voice came in again.

"Oh yeah? Well my ass doesn't have patience for your face, so there. Hehehehehe."

A sigh let out in the speaker, "Light her up."

A huge surge of electricity coursed through XVIIJ as she fell to the floor screaming. "OOOOOOOOH! YYYEEEEAAAAAH! THAAAAAT'S THEEEE SPPPPOOOOT!"

The speaker let out a muffled, "Turn up the gage," followed by a louder tone, "Need another?"

"That was awesome!" XVIIJ rose up to her feet quickly and added, "Let's do it again!"

A distant, but familiar voice that sounded at least ten meters away from the speakers microphone came in with, "That's enough. Let me speak with her."

"As you wish, sir." The original voice replied.

The newer voice came in through the speakers, "Number 18? Do you remember why you're in the cell?"

XVIIJ replied in a joyful and almost innocent-little-girl sounding voice, "Yeah, that one guard bad-touched me so I dented in his manhood with my foot a few times. How is he by the way?"

"He'll live, but he won't have any children anymore. Also he wasn't bad-touching you. He was restraining you for your program required, weekly physical." The voice said almost in a distraught manner.

"Nah-uh." She interjected. "Fishbones told me it was bad-touch. He told me to kick him in his groin until he stopped moving."

The newer voice seemed to mutter silently to someone else, "Her schizophrenic behavior is getting worse." Then it came back loudly in the speaker, "18, we talked about this Fishbones isn't real, he's in your head."

"Nah-uh." Again she complained. "He is real, he's a fish that shoots rockets from his mouth and he's always with me. Also I lied. Fishbones said it was bad-touch and that I should tell the guard it's wrong and it hurts my feelings, but instead I decided to hurt him."

"Okay, okay. We'll discuss it later. Are you ready for today?" The voice said sounding perkier.

"That depends," XVIIJ replied, "What is today?

"Today is the day of your final test." The voice said triumphantly.

A sense of join and some strange unearthly pleasure overtook XVIIJ. "Yeah, let's do it!"

"Well alright then," said the voice, "place your hands on the pads and we'll begin."

With that XVIIJ placed her hands flat on the pads to begin the procedure of administering her restraints. Three mechanical arms extend from different ports of the wall around her. Two put a wrist cuff onto each of her wrists and another wrapped a collar around her throat. The three are tied to a device every guard and member of the program present carries with them at all times around a subject that is not in their cell or in a closed off part of the lab. Whenever someone chooses to activate a device the wrists snap together at the closest point they are, so it depends on if her arms are forward or back, and the collar gives a quick shock of electricity. A separate button on the device deactivates this function. They all have the power and authority to use it whenever they like. Abuse is strongly encouraged by the higher-ups.

As the doors opened, all the guards made a lot of room for her to exit. XVIIJ has taken hit after hit from the collar before. She has found it most fun to grapple someone who gets to close just so he can feel the pain as his fellow guards frantically try to use it to stop her.

She looked at them as they cowered away from her and said, "No need to be scared – or alive."

The voice from before who she could now tell it was Mr. Parson said, "Now 18, we aren't going to have a repeat of the last few times we let you out. Are we?"

Joyfully she replied, "Yeah, I accidently did that on purpose." She smiled sinisterly at the guards after she said it. "I'll be good I promise."

"Good." Mr. Parson said. "Now here are the files on your final test. Read and memorize them carefully. Then toss them in the incinerator as you enter the armory. The front door will be open when you signal you are ready and best of luck." With that Mr. Parson ushered the guards away and left her to study the files.

XVIIJ dumped the files onto the ground and started rifling through them. To an onlooker she appeared to be playing with the files, but in her own way she was studying them. When she finished she scooped them up and placed them in the incinerator. Then she skipped gingerly into the armory.

The armory was fully stocked. Weapons of all sorts and sizes rested on the walls. Where there wasn't a weapon on the wall a piece of armor or equipment was hanging there prepped and ready. In the middle was crates fill with explosives. A small army could start a war with the gear inside this armory, but XVIIJ just wanted her personal arrangement of tools.

Stripping herself nude of the jumpsuit she wore she started to wrap belts all over her body. XVIIJ looked like she was dressed in leather, but it was just a lot of belts. On one of the belts covering her chest she used a blade to mark the roman numerals "X-V-I-I-J" into the leather, enough to be easily legible. But still crudely drawn, because the "I" next to the "V" is a little too close almost forming a backwards "N" instead. On the belts she placed magazines of ammunition, plastic explosives with fuses, and many grenades. You could hardly see a spot of leather on her after she was loaded up. She strapped a Mark XI-23B Zapping Pistol to her lower back and felt weary as she did so. The pistol made her kind of feel a sense of nostalgia, but she ignored it and kept going. She hefted the last of her ensemble, an M-168 three-barreled mini-gun, and took off for the front door looking pleased.

As she reached the door to leave she placed her palm on the reader and waited for the doors to unlock and open. Walking out into the compound around the lab she found a single 4x4 vehicle parked and ready for her to start her test. The driver seat was redesigned to fit her smaller stature. She got in and placed the mini-gun upright in the passenger seat, buckling it in, as if it were a person. When she settled in she turned to the weapon and said, "Soon my sweet, soon. Soon you will scream loud enough for everyone to hear. The rules of my test say I have to be discrete. But rules are made to be broken…" she lightly padded the explosives on her chest, "like buildings!" She continued as she looked at the mini-gun again, "Or people!"

With that she started the vehicle by placing her palm on the center console's reader and revved the engine loudly before bolting out to the exit and stopping abruptly to use the reader to open the gate. The gate took forever to open, and it annoyed XVIIJ. Then she raced forward at full speed away from the compound honking the horn many times as she sped out to the nearest road that would lead her to her destination.

_Half an hour later._

XVIIJ sat in the vehicle down the road from the industrial plant that housed her objective. She was looking for guard routines and weak spots for entering the facility. She knew this was the most boring part, but she wanted more freedom so she would play the White-coats little procedural games so she could find time for her fun with Mr. Mayhem. The objective was to kill the factory owner. He didn't sit well with the Zaun military or at least he wasn't the guy they wanted running the show. Attached to the plant was an estate that the objective took up residence in. It was too heavily guarded for a full-frontal assault. Some guy named Viktor worked in the Research and Development division of the company and the Zaun military asked him if he'd like to take the reigns if the previous owner left his position vacant. He graciously accepted. It sucked for XVIIJ though. He was supposed to be this powerful fighter with all his high-tech weaponry and she would have loved to see him in action. But he took a "sick day" tonight and left the facility at the mercy of expert assassins like her. He will be placed in charge by the Zaun government the next day.

Finalizing her plan, XVIIJ grabbed the mini-gun from the seat and set out to hike her way up to the facility to start her test. As she expected she got into a side door without her presence known by the guards who were away from watching the door at that precise moment. Inside she noticed the huge plant was empty and it bugged her. She let out a loud five second burst from her weapon and started to hear doors open and footsteps clank on the metal scaffolding around the building. As soon as she saw the first men enter she opened fire.

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The mini-gun screamed round after round into the frightened guards that closed in around her. She ran along the scaffolding and spun her weapon wildly putting bursts into the different groups of guards that came in from all directions. Many tried to level their weapons on her, but were all getting caught on their fallen brethren as they got cut down themselves. In less than a minute she had made probably four dozen or more widows from the crew of protectors at the plant. All dead, she set explosives on the machinery and made her way to the plants entrance to the estate.

The commotion had drawn the attention of all the remaining guards around the estate. They rushed into the facility to investigate the piles of dead bodies. She hid as they entered, then went to the entrance way to the homestead and turned around to see all of them in the building and close to the machinery. Laughing to garner their attention she held up a remote detonator and said, "Duck! Hehe, just kidding, that won't help." Then she pressed the detonator's trigger and left the building as a quarter ton of plastic explosives engulfed them all in a fiery blast. She didn't bother to see how many were killed; she just set off up the hill to the doors of the objective's house.

As she approaches them she switches magazines and shoots down the doors. Once inside she spots servants huddled and cowering to one side on the entrance hall. She giggles and says, "Everybody, panic!" Then she unloads a burst of lead tearing them all to shreds before she starts jogging up the stairs. The building is three stories tall so she figures the objective will be on the top floor. She sees people running around and starts shooting at them saying, "Stay still! I'm trying to shoot you!" Every room she checks she finds either vacant or with people cowering in the corners. Regardless she tosses an armed grenade into any room she doesn't see him and moves to the next one to repeat the cycle. Explosions going off everywhere and screaming people being silenced forever is the state of confusion she is leaving in her wake. At the end of the hall she finds a large room containing a man that fits the profile for her objective to the letter. A portly man with no hair, and a big curly mustache. Behind him he is shielding a young girl, most likely his daughter. She can't be older than five. She is turned around pointing at a mirror above a desk and XVIIJ can see her pointing at the scary girl in the reflection.

"Daddy, daddy, look at the mirror. I can see her." The little girl exclaims.

The objective turns around to glance at the mirror, noticing something he looks back at XVIIJ, and then back at the mirror. Then he lets out a confused and questioning word, "JINX?"

Just then XVIIJ finds herself ignoring the task at hand. She doesn't hear screams and she can't focus on anything else. She stares at her reflection in the mirror. She sees it on her leather belt, draped across her chest, The roman numerals she crudely etched into the material form J-I-N-X. 'JINX!' She thought to herself. 'I like the sound of that, JINX!'

Then she regained her composure and focused in on her objective. Cradling the mini-gun on her right she set the chambers to spin so she could burst both of them into oblivion and be done with her test. Before she could pull the trigger the little girl wrestled her father's grip off of her and made her way to XVIIJ. On her open left side the little girl hugged her at the waist. She let go of the gun and let it swing from its straps on both her shoulders behind her. She could feel water pour down her faced and noticed that they were tears. She bent down and gave the girl a hug back in return. They looked like to angels holding each other in a soft embrace. She remembered VI and the love they once had. She wanted to have VI back, somehow, but she remembered she died.

Her moment broke as the man said, "P-Please, young miss, d-don't hurt her. She is just an affectionate girl."

With her moment gone, XVIIJ wrenched the little girl off of her and pushed her harshly out of the room as she slammed the door shut, leaving just herself and the objective alone in the room.

He started to mutter, "Please don't hurt her, please!" As XVIIJ took out the Mark XI-23B Zapping Pistol and charged it up for the first shot.

She trained it on the right ventricle of his heart and said, "You're starting to bore me. Any last words? Ha! No, just die." Then she shot him at point-blank range and he dropped like a sack of stones back onto the floor. She left the room ignoring the little girl that passed her to go and stir her father from what she thought was a deep slumber. XVIIJ moved fast as she shot only the people directly in front of her escape route. She bolted down the hillside with no resistance. 'They must have all died in the explosion or ran for the hills.' She thought as she forced herself and her weapon into the vehicle and started it up.

She sat in the driver seat with a look of fury in her eyes. 'Why am I so angry?' She thought. 'I just completed my last test. I am done with the program. I'm going to get a rank and everything. So why am I so angry? Did I forget to shoot something? Why am I angry?' She pondered a multitude of reasons before accepting she cannot find a one and then started off down the road, back to the lab compound.

_One hour later._

The ride back was slower than the ride to the test. She didn't feel a whole lot of need to return so quickly to the lab. She also needed to clear her head before confronting the White-coats again. She drove casually to the gate and palmed herself in. Leaving the vehicle and all her weapons and equipment inside it, as per her test protocol, she strolled up to the door and palmed herself entry to the lab. As she entered she noticed four men standing there all with their hands behind their backs. She had a bad feeling about what would happen next, but she donned her usual crazy smile to try and put them at ease.

"Congratulations!" Mr. Parson spoke first. "You've passed, with flying colors. We were hoping you would kill them all. Aside from a few servants and family members we'll attend to later you did exactly what we knew you would do. Break our rules and cause a massacre. Bravo 18, bravo!"

'Family members?' She wondered. 'Like the little girl. I should have just zapped her too and saved her the grief of dying horribly later.'

"Yep." XVIIJ exclaimed. "I wanted to kill them all and so I did."

At that moment the general interjected as he motioned to the other man to his left, "I am Major General Travers, and this is the Department Head, Doctor Bales. It's a pleasure to meet you miss. The doctor and his associates who you already know have informed me you have completed their program and are ready for an induction into the Zaun military. I have to agree. I have seen the results of your final test and I am hereby rewarding you with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Of course you will need a name, but because you will not exist outside of the military and some better quarters of this compound you will require an official name. We can show you a list of approved names, but I was wondering if you had one that suited you well enough."

She thought for a second and then blurted it out, "JINX, I want my name to be Jinx."


	6. Worth

**Chapter 6: Worth**

_Three days ago._

"Hey? Are you there?" A young man called into the alleyway in a quiet tone. "Yoh. Are you there?"

"Yes, now be quiet." A voice from the shadows replied. "Have you taken care of my things?"

The young man strode into the alleyway enough to not be seen from the street. He was dressed in a costume of sorts meant to blend into the scenery of the streets around him. If you looked closely it would appear he was trying too hard to look like a drunken bum. The way he walked was faked to. "I had to use some of my associates to take care of things, but they don't know anything about what I was doing and they didn't see me setup anything."

"Silk is your name, right?" The figure in the shadows came forward so Silk could see his face. "Are you certain everything is in place?"

"Yeah, it's all good, but hey I thought you didn't want to use names."

"Haha. Yes with people I planned on keeping." Before Silk could respond the man from the shadows pulled out a pistol that had an attachment on the barrel. He shot Silk three times in the chest. The gun made barely any noise as it fired, almost like a loud snap of the fingers. Then he unloaded the magazine into Silk's corpse, turned on his heels and left the alley.

Silk's blood flowed, without resistance, into the alley's drain. On his shirt the blood oozing up from the wounds was showing the positioning of the shots. They formed a capital "C" on his chest.

_Present time._

The market square was in an uproar. Crazy pandemonium filled the streets as people darted right to left confused on where to go. Men and women calling out names and lifting crying children up from the ground. A crime was being committed, that much was obvious, but barely anyone knew where and how.

_BLAM-CRACK!_

A shot rang out over the crowd and people now had a sense of direction. Away from that shot. From above it looked like scurrying insects fleeing from a point on the square in a fan-shaped manner. One large man was striding in the opposite direction holding a rifle. He was trying to calm people passing by, but from the way he was doing so you could tell he knew it was useless. The people wouldn't calm down until long after the incident was over and far away from here.

_BLAM-CRACK!_

_BLAM-CRACK!_

Two more shots quickly followed the first one. Some of the people stopped fleeing and looked to see where the shots were coming from. One man cried out over the noise of the crowd, "Everyone look! It's the 'True Sheriff of Piltover' up there!"

Atop a one story building a young lady was down in a prone position holding a fancy looking rifle. The shots were coming from her and the crime was taking place where her barrel pointed. People stopped running away from her. As some changed their pace towards her direction others cheered her on.

The man that was striding through them was still trying, but now perpendicular to their flow. He started barking commands at the now overjoyed public. "Get out of here! Get moving now! You're all in our line of fire!" He kept moving towards the scene of the crime.

Against a booth, on the far side of the market square, lay three yordles who had just tried to pull a heist of a lot of the techmaturgical equipment from a few of the stands. Each was bleeding from huge gashes in their legs. They all carried weapons and looked unconscious to anyone who was close enough to see them. The problem was that anyone close enough to see them lying still could also notice they hadn't lost enough blood to pass out from blood loss. Their main weapons lay around them and they were too close for comfort.

"Everyone! Look! It's Sheriff Roy and Caitlyn! We're saved!" A different man bellowed as he was moving away from the scene.

Just then another deputy came into the square on Roy's right. He was Alexander Farthen, a grandson of James Farthen's grandfather's brother who had no interest in acquiring any of the family's businesses. Alexander only had family ties, but he still got some notoriety for it. He was 27 and had a tall, lanky sort of look to him. Still he handled his rifle like it was an extension of his body. He had a full head of blond, short hair with no facial hair, and a chiseled jaw. His skin was pale-white even though he spent so much time outdoors.

With Roy's free right hand he held open his palm and motioned it forward and then held up two fingers, signaling Alexander to get closer and cover his right flank at about 20 meters away from the targets. As Alexander made a salute to show he was complying and moved into position, Roy turned around to make hand gestures towards Caitlyn. From the rooftop, Caitlyn was 65 meters away from the targets. Roy hefted his rifle straps to hold the weapon on his left shoulder. Then he used both hands to signal Caitlyn. He held his right hand up horizontal and flat with fingers together. With his left hand he made a fist and held it under the right. Moving his right hand over his left he opened his fingers up over his left fist. Caitlyn saluted and complied. She pulled back the equipping hammer on her rifle back to two clicks and set her sights to begin the task she was about to do. Roy took his weapon in his hands again and moved in closer to the targets. Just then three police vehicles pulled up to the edge of the square behind Roy. They were 110 meters out. He turned to face them and one of them held up a hand to acknowledge they would let the Sheriff's Department handle the arrest.

_BLAM-CRACK! SWOOSH! CLANG! CLANG!_

Caitlyn fired one of her expandable blade rounds right over the tops of the yordles and it landed right behind them on the ground bouncing up to dig into the nearby wall where it stopped. Two of the three yordles jumped from their faked states of unconsciousness and reached out for their weapons.

_BLAM-CRACK! BLAM-CRACK! BLAM-CRACK! BLAM-CRACK!_

Both Roy and Alexander each shot twice at the one nearest to them and crippled all of the two yordles arms. The third woke finally and called out, "We surrender! Just don't kill us!"

Roy began his reply in the form of harsh orders, "Slowly rise and move away from your weapon." The third complied and slowly got up on his good leg and limped carefully away from the booth. Roy waited for the yordle to get 10 meters or so away from the other two before he continued, "Okay. Now lie down there and don't move." Again the yordle complied as he slowly laid himself faced down.

Just as Roy was beginning to move in closer he heard a rumble coming from the street in front of him. He saw what appeared to be a police vehicle redesigned like a tank roll in hard and place it self between the other two yordles and himself. Instinctively both he and Alexander ran to find cover as a machine gun stuck itself out of a slot on the side of the tank facing them and opened fire on Roy.

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Roy barely got behind a few crates against a booth in the center of the square. Alexander barged his way into a building near him and got down on the floor before the machine gun turned on him and fired in through the windows. Thankfully the residents of the building had previously fled during the beginning of the incident.

Caitlyn thought quickly and decided to handle the situation without an order. She pulled the equipping hammer on her rifle back four clicks and readied herself to fire the SHM round. Aiming easily at the tank's open slot she fired off the powerful round.

_KABLAM-CRACK! CHING! BOOM!_

The round entered the open slot, exploding as it struck, and the inside of the tank burst fire out of any other holes or loose seams. The inside roared flames out of the cracks. Anything flammable inside was instantly aflame. Little unknown about being in a fireball. If you scream as the fire engulfs you, you will be on fire and start feeling it burn you alive. If you inhale as it engulfs you, your lungs burn from the super hot air and your heart stops from suffocation almost immediately, sparing you some of the pain from your burning flesh. (Feel free to fact check me)

Roy peered out over the crates to assess the situation and after feeling safe that the tank was no longer a threat, stood up to approach the wreck. Alexander also came out from the building he had taken shelter in and began moving in closer as he saw Roy move forward. Quickly he turned to face Caitlyn holding up his right hand in a congratulatory thumbs-up for her as he smiled. She stayed focused, but did take notice of his thanks with a smile for a reply. Roy saw that the yordle who surrendered was on fire but not moving, dead. Alexander moved to the back of the tank scanning the scene with his rifle up. The two yordles lying behind the tank were also on fire, also dead.

"They dead back there!?" Roy yelled to Alexander.

Alexander replied, "Yeah their dead. She got 'em all. Should I pop the hatch?"

"Nah," Roy answered, "let the Police Department take over the cleanup." Roy signaled to the police who were behind their vehicles, confused over what just happened. Then they started to file out to take control of the crime scene.

_Thirty minutes later._

Caitlyn finished the final remarks on her initial report to the Police Chief and strolled over to where Roy and Alexander were waiting for her. "I need a break." She chided as she approached them. They both chuckled.

Alexander responded first. "Every time you use that round I feel like the world is spitting out a ball of fire. How can you stand the recoil?"

"My bones are made of steel." Caitlyn joked as she smiled at him. "Instead of whatever supports your child-like frame."

Alexander smiled and took the jibe as a friendly insult, but still mockingly fired back his own. "I was thinking less steel more fat from how much you eat out."

"Are you calling me fat?" She said in a humorous and jaded tone.

Alexander didn't let up. "No, no. Well maybe." He said with a huge grin almost giggling.

Caitlyn was humored by his response but still made an angry and tight-lipped face at him.

"Alright that's enough children," Roy budded in, "both of you shut up, I can't take your dry humor right now."

"We are not children. I mean come on, I'm twenty." Caitlyn said in a tone that made her sound as if she was insulted.

"What's eating you?" Alexander replied.

"Nothing's eating me. It's just that I want to be eating. Also I still don't get why the people granted Caitlyn the title, 'The True Sheriff of Piltover' I mean come on. What does that make me now?" Roy said in a tired tone.

Both Caitlyn and Alexander burst out in hysterical laughter.

When they stopped Caitlyn said, "Yeah. I don't get it either, except maybe it has something to do with how many times I save the day and you." Roy smiled at her remark, and Caitlyn continued, "Anyways, I could go for a bite. Our favorite place?" Roy nodded his reply to her. "Okay, Alexander you coming?" She said in a friendly tone.

Roy noticed Alexander stop smiling slowly as his lips pursed up and his expression changed to a serious one. Alexander replied calmly, "No it's okay Cait. I have some work to do at the department. You know paperwork and stuff."

Roy wondered about him saying calling her 'Cait' instead of 'Caitlyn' when Alexander replied to her. 'When did they become so informal?' He thought.

Caitlyn looked down a little. Roy noticed this with a confused feeling. "Okay. If you're not hungry or whatever it's fine." She said.

Awkward silence fell on the three of them for ten seconds before Alexander spoke up. "Okay. Well I will see you two later." At that he turned around and started walking towards the Sheriff's Department.

Roy nudged Caitlyn with his arm on hers. She looked up, grew a big and obviously fake smile, and said, "Okay, Roy let's go to _**Mart's**_."

Without imposing on what just happened, Roy motion for her to lead the way. "Okay I'll follow you."

_Fifteen minutes later at __**Mart's**__._

"Let me guess. You both want the Sweet Mystery Meat Combo?" The waiter said in a playful tone.

Caitlyn replied for both of them, "Yeah. Thanks Chad."

Caitlyn and Roy loved _**Mart's**_. Not just the food, but also for the atmosphere. So rustic and carefree, the whole restaurant-deli felt like home when you ate there. Not at all like Caitlyn's real home which was an estate in one of the more luxury neighborhoods in the city-state of Piltover. More like Roy's home which aside from a cot at his office was a split-level home in a less well off but still suburban neighborhood. Roy had envisioned making a life there, but never got around to it. Besides Caitlyn has been like a daughter to him for the past six years. The same can be said for her. She has thought of Roy as being more of a father to her than her real father ever was. She wasn't going to blame her real father though; he works hard and supports her life and her mother's work. So he's at least a caring provider, but not an active father.

Life always had ups and downs, but with all the downs that could come from the job, the two of them had a good grip on a normal life. So life was good.

"So, I wonder how those yordles made a tank without anyone noticing." Roy started.

Caitlyn replied, "Yeah, but I don't think they made it."

"What do you mean?" Roy asked confused.

"Well," she continued, "I got more time to look at it then you did, of course. I noticed that it was made really well, but for humans, and it looked like someone tweaked the design to accommodate yordles."

"So you think that someone else made it and the yordles bought it on the black market and made the changes themselves or they had whoever made the tank change it for them." Roy asked skeptically.

Caitlyn replied, "No they definitely changed it later. The changes didn't mesh well with the original design. If whoever made it did change it for them I feel like they would have done as good a job at it as they did making the tank."

"Well whoever designed it didn't do it well enough if your SHM round took it out in one shot." Roy said with pride.

"Yeah that's just it," said Caitlyn, "it looked as if they made that machine gun slot themselves. It made the tank way more vulnerable than it probably was originally."

"Well, we will see the full report tomorrow and figure it out then. For now I am more curious about you." Roy said in a serious tone.

"What about me?" Caitlyn replied quizzically.

Roy didn't want to flat out ask about Alexander. So he started out casually, "Are there any men in your life?"

"Whoa," Caitlyn said a little distressed, "Roy that's a little forward of you. I mean yeah, there are a few guys I know but nothing like that."

"I was only curious." Roy said in a reassuring tone.

"Well, okay. I mean all the guys I meet just seem to want to get in my pants. Even Alex tried." She didn't mean to say it out loud at all. It just seemed to be on her mind enough to open up to Roy about it. She immediately regretted saying it.

"WHAT!? ALEXANDER DID WHAT!?" Roy bellowed and spooked the other customers in the restaurant-deli.

"Roy, calm down!" Caitlyn whispered so loud it sounded like a scream. "It's not like that. He didn't literally try to get in my pants." She waited for his expression to show her he was calmer before she continued, "We went out a week ago and I thought it was a friendly time, but I guess he imagined it was a date. It was nice and we were having a lot of fun. When he started walking me home he invited me to come to his place for awhile. That's when it dawned on me that it was a date to him and I panicked. I lied and said I had patrol duties that night so I left him there and ran home feeling really bad."

"That would explain the tension today." Roy started. "He looked troubled when you asked him to join us for lunch."

"Yeah. I mean I like him he's a great guy, but not like that and I don't know how to get back to normal with him." She said in a worried tone.

Roy chuckled and tried to put her at ease, "Alexander is a guy. He will forget it all in a few weeks and things will be normal before you know it. I am sure he knows you're looking for a different sort of guy and if he cares for you he will be happy for you."

"Yeah Roy I meant to talk to you about that. I don't know if there is a guy for me." Caitlyn said in a sadder voice.

Again Roy chuckled, "What do you mean, of course there is a man meant for you out there. You just got to look for him."

Caitlyn replied in a gentle tone, "No I mean I don't know if I want a man."

"You don't plan on being lonely your whole life like me, do you? Because I won't stand for you being alone." Roy said with sternness in his voice.

"No I don't want to be alone. I just don't think I want a man." Caitlyn said in the mildest way she could.

Roy started back in a questioning manner, "I'm lost here. How do you…" Suddenly Roy's demeanor changed to outright confusion.

Chilling silence gripped them both and Roy noticed Caitlyn's look of worry as she bit her lip. In his head Roy thought, 'Oh, wow! She doesn't want a man, she wants a woman? No, no that can't be what she's saying. Really? Wow! How do I approach this? I want her to be happy, but that's not normal. I mean I understand if she feels that way. She is like one of the guys and she spends so much time with them she might have learned to like girls the way they talk about 'em. But no, she can't be serious. I mean if she is, what do I say? No one will understand her behavior. I can't just let her do that to herself. Wait, wait. Think Roy you promised yourself you would be like a father. Supportive and there to always back her up, but this. I mean I really want her to be happy, but what if she…? Okay, okay. I will just let her play this out. If I push for her to end any thoughts about it she might rebel and do this for all the wrong reasons. I mean I don't mind if she hates me half as much as she could end up hating herself. I will support her and let her make her own decisions. I am positive she will pass through this phase all on her own.'

When Roy was ready to reply he changed his expression to one of joy and said, "Well I don't completely understand why you feel this way, but it's your life. So if loving a woman makes you happy then I'm happy for you. But I just want you to know its normal for girls to like other girls and I just hope your not confusing that for love."

Caitlyn screamed and then yelled out, "Oh thank you Roy! Thank you! I knew you'd understand you're the best!" She stood up and rushed around the table to embrace Roy. She almost knocked her top-hat of the table doing so.

"You're welcome. No need to break my back. Please Caitlyn you can sit down." Roy exclaimed, a little overjoyed himself. He had never seen her display so much delight.

At that moment the waiter, Chad, returned and paused to let them finish and notice him. Caitlyn let go of Roy and stood up to face Chad as Roy turned in his chair to do the same. Roy asked, "What's up. Is there a wait on our order?"

Chad replied as calmly as he could, "No sir. It would seem that a call has come in for you from the Police Chief. If you would please follow me to our phone?"

Roy and Caitlyn followed Chad back to Mart's back office. Mart was sitting in his chair on the phone trying to calm down the Police Chief. "Okay, okay! Their right here, calm down!"

Mart passed the phone to Roy and Roy turned to face Caitlyn. The Police Chief chimed into Roy's ear. "Roy is that you?"

Roy replied, "Yes, sir what can I do you for?" Roy started to hear gunshots and explosions in the background.

The Police Chief continued, "Roy, listen. We need you and any of your deputies you can get a hold of to get down to the Piltovian-Demacian Bank on fifth street. Someone is trying to rob it and we have already started to lose control of the situation. Two of your deputies made the scene first, uh, Maxwell and Rogers. Look Roy I know you don't want to hear it, but I need you to understand the situation we are in. They both died immediately. Hidden mounted guns in the buildings around us had taken them out. I am so sorry, but I need more help so please get here soon."

Roy handed the phone back to Mart and left he restaurant with Caitlyn close behind him calling out for him to say something. "Roy? Please Roy tell me what is going on, please."

Roy paused before turning around to face her and say, "Maxwell and Rogers are dead and we need to go stop a bank robbery. Now we need to move, call it in as we go. We need everyone for this."

Caitlyn didn't say a word, but nodded her understanding. She calmed into her own mode for serious work and started making the calls on her radio set as she followed Roy in a fast run the next ten blocks to the crime scene.

_Ten minutes later at the Piltovian-Demacian Bank._

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Multiple mounted guns roared fire, out of the windows they were stationed in, down at the police vehicles parked outside the bank. If the vehicles ran on combustion engines, instead of running solely on the stored up electricity created from the liquids and gases that are collected out of the marshes outside of town, they would have exploded by now.

Caitlyn and Roy were around the corner looking at the scene from the police officer's left. They waited there trying to communicate what they were doing with the Police Chief via radio. When Caitlyn spotted other deputies taking positions to move into the buildings the mounted guns were in she nudged Roy and pointed at them and then at herself and then at the top of the building they leaned against.

Roy replied, "Only go three stories up. Incase I need you to move out fast." She saluted to comply and went inside to climb the stairs. When she reached a good spot she clicked her radio twice to signify she was in position.

Roy crackled into all his deputies radios with his commands, "Okay Caitlyn is going to watch the guns incase they move. The rest of you know what to do. Be careful and wait in position to take them out we need to get all three at once."

Three teams of deputies, each with four men a piece started to move into each target's building. Alexander was the leader of the team to the left. After a few minutes three separate double-clicks of the radio chimed in and Roy called out to Caitlyn, "Any movement?"

She replied quietly and calmly, "No they are still firing out of the same windows."

"Okay all teams commence operations." Roy exclaimed.

Ten seconds later Alexander chimed in with a hurried voice, "Roy order the others back, we went in and saw no one. Just the gun shooting on its own. I threw a remote detonating explosive towards it, but we're going to get out of here before we explode it-"

_KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!_

Three explosions erupted from each building a gun was in, taking out the floors right above and below with them. Screaming men came in on all frequencies. Nothing they said was understandable. The buildings were engulfed with flames. Alexander came in loud, "Sir, the building exploded! We just got outside! Where are the other teams!?"

_KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM! RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!_

Before Roy could respond a second wave of explosions started a series of smaller explosions that caused the buildings to collapse simultaneously. More screaming came in on the radios right before it all went silent. The dust from the buildings filled the streets around the bank square. Caitlyn had to take cover to avoid flying debris. As well as the police officers on the street.

Roy suddenly heard the sound of some large vehicles barreling behind him. He saw three of them pass him by as they drove straight into the dust. He heard them stop and heard people get off them and run towards what he could only assume was the bank. He called out, "Stop those trucks! They can't be allowed to get away!" At that moment he heard clanking sounds come from the vehicles. The police officers charged blindly through the dust towards the sound of the trucks. Roy realized the sounds were of mounted guns being prepped. "Take cover! Take cover!" But it was a moment too late.

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Lead from three mounted guns ripped through the dense mass of officers, shredding their advancing lines to pieces as they tried to reach their police vehicles again. It happened too quickly for them to shout much more than a few screams. Half the officers there hadn't yet left the security of their cover and were spared the horror. No one but the men who died could see through the dust as they were slain. Roy could almost hear the silent thuds of their bodies hitting the pavement through the bright, opaque curtain of the debris cloud.

"Caitlyn are you okay!?" As much as it was a surprise to Roy, it was just as much a joy to Caitlyn to hear Alexander call in on the radio. "Caitlyn are you there!?"

Caitlyn lit up with almost an angry tone, "Yes! I'm okay. But forget about me you idiot! Are you guys okay!?"

"Yeah, well they are, but I might need a bandage." Alexander coughed a hearty laugh. A voice near him could be heard saying, "Alex, man lie still your bleeding out!"

Caitlyn lost it and started to panic, "No, Alex! What do they mean? Are you hurt? How bad? Answer me!"

"CAITLYN!" Roy chimed in over the radio. "FOCUS! I need you with me; we need to stop the robbers!"

Caitlyn wanted to tell Roy to shove it, but knew he was right. "Yeah. I'm here. I will see if I can take out the gunners." She hated herself and wanted to call Alexander again, but instead she remembered the task at hand and positioned herself at the nearest window to take out the targets. She could just barely see them through the dust. She got angry fast and yelled out in the most foolish way possible, "Up here you bastards!" Ignoring all of her training she quickly shot one round into the skulls of each gunner in less than two seconds. Screaming as she fired like it would help the round kill them more.

"Caitlyn, what the fuck is wrong with you!?" Roy called her. "Stop acting foolish and focus!"

Caitlyn left the window and hugged her knees while she sat against the wall. She grabbed her radio to talk again almost crying, "Alex! Please tell me you're still there?"

One of Alexander's, team's other deputies, Zachary Figgin, responded, "Caitlyn, its Zach! He's ok we just can't let him move right now. Please stay calm."

"Let me hear him." She sounded even sadder. Shots rang out in the street outside the window. "Please I want to know he's okay."

"Caitlyn," Alexander responded in a raspy voice, "I am okay, but the big question is are you? A lot of people still need you. Can you help them?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. Roy I am going to cover the bank entrance." She said trying to calm herself.

Roy called in on the radio in a tone that clarified how pissed off he was, "You idiot! Were you not watching!? They just came out and loaded up the trucks. They're getting away right now!"

Caitlyn took up her spot at the window again just as the last truck had started off down the road. She ran down the stairs and found Roy outside commandeering a police vehicle. She raced to take the passenger seat as two officers climbed in the back. Roy gunned it and chased after the three trucks.

The vehicle they rode in was the newest year model City Patroller. The vehicle was especially designed by a joint effort between the Yordle Academy of Science & Progress and Piltover Customs, for the Police Department. Yes there were law-abiding yordles in Piltover. In fact they made up over ninety-five percent of Piltover's yordle population. The Yordle Academy of Science & Progress was responsible for many other tools used by them as well. Like the zapping pistols. This vehicle they rode in was built with a lot of light armor. The frame, glass, and exterior were all made to be bulletproof. But only for weapons that were weak enough to bounce off. The windshield was still intact even though it was covered in cracks. So they stood a good chance still of chasing the trucks down.

Caitlyn positioned her gun outside the window and over the mirror for balance. She shot at the truck in the lead trying to pop their tires. After a whole 45 round magazine didn't pop them she realized they were probably too thick to be inflated tires. Other police vehicles were right behind them firing wildly at the trucks. All of a sudden the three trucks slowed down and stopped right beside one another, at an intersection, blocking the entire street from building to building. Roy slowed down in caution of their actions but kept going.

_KABOOM-BOOM! RUMBLE-RUMBLE! RUMBLE-RUMBLE!_

Behind Roy and Caitlyn's vehicle two buildings on either side exploded and crumbled down into the street blocking the path for the other police officers and trapping the four of them with the trucks. The rubble had fallen on the two nearest police vehicles crushing them flat.

The men in the trucks stormed out and opened fire. Roy turned the vehicle so his side faced them and ordered everyone out to take cover behind it. From a building, on one of the opposite corners of the intersection, on the right an automated mounted gun started firing at them.

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The two officers with them were in the middle of providing cover for Roy and Caitlyn to get out when the mounted gun tore them both down. The Sheriff and his deputy put themselves at the middle of the vehicle and covered their heads. For whatever reason the men from the trucks returned to their vehicles and started driving off down the road. The mounted gun continued to fire on Roy and Caitlyn's cover.

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Roy yelled out, but Caitlyn could barely hear him say, "We will just wait it out until help comes! Don't worry!"

"I'm not worried!" Caitlyn lied.

_SHISH-PEW! SWHOOSH! KABOOM!_

The automated machine gun fired a guided rocket out over the vehicle and it exploded 10 meters from them. Caitlyn screamed. Roy knew that they couldn't wait. "Caitlyn! I need you to listen to me and do what I say!"

As if she already knew his plan she cried out, "No fucking way! You are not going to do what I hope you aren't doing!"

_SHISH-PEW! SWHOOSH! KABOOM!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Another rocket exploded closer at 7 meters. Caitlyn didn't scream this time she was too distracted. Roy exclaimed, "We don't have time, you know what I am going to do now get ready!"

"No!" She bellowed. "No! No! No! Don't do this we can find another way!" She quickly tried to take a peek, but Roy pulled her back as a few rounds knocked off her top-hat.

_SHISH-PEW! SWHOOSH! KABOOM!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The third rocket landed 5 meters away and sprayed them both with super heated debris. Roy cradled her head in his arms so he could whisper in her ear, "Child, I love you and I know you will find happiness in whatever you decide to do and in whoever you decide to love." He kissed her forehead as he saw the tears roll down her cheeks. He pulled back the equipping hammer on her rifle four clicks and then turned and bolted towards an open door in the building to their left.

As he ran Caitlyn screamed and leveled the gun so she could fire. In her mind she quickly thought, 'Get it before it shoots him!'

_SHISH-PEW! SWHOOSH! KABOOM!_

_RAT-TA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The fourth rocket entered the doorway to the building launching Roy back into the street as the gun rained fired down at him in mid-air.

_KABLAM-CRACK! CHING! BOOM!_

Caitlyn lit up the mounted gun and obliterated it with the SHM round. The window exploded and the blast leveled the entire story. Without waiting for the debris in the window to settle and check that the target was down she dropped her rifle and ran to Roy. Crying his name she fell to her knees, she started to shake him by his collar. He wouldn't move, he was shot seven times in the midsection.

She cried and screamed over him, "DAMMIT ROY! WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP! DON'T FUCKING DIE! WAKE UP!" For the first time ever his left eye, dead from the incident that earned him the title 'Blind Justice', had more life in it then his right. "YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME ROY! PLEASE YOU CAN'T! I NEED YOU! WE ALL NEED YOU! PILTOVER NEEDS YOU! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP!"

She laid her head on his chest and sobbed for a few minutes. She didn't notice a man sneak behind her and walk around to grab her hat from the ground. He tucked a card on the inside seam of it and placed it on the front hood of the police vehicle. Then he stealthily left the scene before some officers came over the rubble to see what happened.

The officers tried to move her, but she fought them hard to stay. Finally the Police Chief arrived and ordered his men to leave her be. Then he organized them to handle the next step after this whole fiasco, cleanup.

_Four days later. At a graveyard meant for Piltover's fallen heros._

The funeral was done in the most honorable fashion possible. A 21 gun salute to commend the fallen to the ground. Everyone in their black uniforms. The tears that were shed were real and the men's loved ones stood proud through it all. All the children were silent and everyone mourned in their own special way.

Caitlyn couldn't stop crying. She was cradled in Alexander's arms. Despite his injury he was able to hold her up very well, because she seemed to feel too weak to stand. She needed him there. She couldn't have held herself together if he wasn't. As the bodies finished being lowered everyone began to throw the first handfuls of dirt on their loved ones. Some people broke down and some children refused to bury their fathers. Caitlyn held the first clump of dirt in her hand for Roy. She couldn't do it. "Alex, help." She cried softly. He gripped her hand in his and held it over the grave. He could feel her trying to fall down and used all his strength to hold her up. She wouldn't let go of the dirt, so he pried her hand open with his. The dirt fell and she turned around to bury her face in Alexander's chest as she sobbed silently, gasping for air.

"Goodbye, Roy." Alexander said as he released his own clump of dirt. Then he started to escort Caitlyn away from the grave.

She ripped herself from him and fell to her knees on the edge of Roy's grave. She yelled in a frantic tone, "ROY YOU FOOL! WHY'D YOU DO IT!? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE FOR ME! NO ONE DOES! PLEASE!"

Alexander picked her up and almost felt his stitches open up. "Caitlyn come on. Let him go."

"NO," she bellowed still, "NO! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE! NOT FOR ME!"

Alexander motioned her to move away, and then he just pushed her along as he said, "Listen to me. We would all die for you."

She kept yelling, "NO! NO, NOT YOU OR ANYONE!"

"Just look Cait!" Alexander motioned her to look ahead. It was all of the Sheriff's deputies standing around her. "We would all die for you."

They all nodded and one said, "Damn straight we would."

Alexander spoke again, "We need you Caitlyn. You are the Sheriff now. We all know Piltover will vote for you. We already want to follow your command. We would all die for you."

She had calmed down at this point to say, "No! All of you promise me now that you will never die for me! You too Alex! Promise me!"

Zachary chimed in, "None of us will make you that promise Ma'am."

"You are all idiots!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, but we're your idiots." Zachary said chuckling as all of them chuckled with him.

She rushed at Zachary and embraced him and then started to hug each and every one of them in turn as they grouped around her. "Shit! You're all idiots." She said when she stopped hugging them all. They all laughed again but louder.

After talking about the good times for awhile they all took off because many of them had patrol duties to get to. Caitlyn walked with Alexander away from Roy's grave. Both of them holding each other. She still felt horrible, but she was doing better. She stopped crying.

As they came to the graveyard entrance they were met by a man Caitlyn knew as her family tailor. She called out to him, "Hello Mr. Tellenbaum did you come to pay your respects?"

Henry Tellenbaum replied, "Why yes Caitlyn, as we are all trying to do today. Roy was a dear man and kept the city from falling into peril many times. I would personally like to thank him. He saved my life once. Anyways, while I have you here I was headed to your house next to deliver your top-hat. Would you care to have it now?"

"Yes, but I didn't bring enough money with me so I will just get it at home later." She replied.

"Oh my dear," he started to respond, "There will be no charge for the Sheriff of Piltover. I absolutely will not have it."

"No, Mr. Tellenbaum I am not the Sheriff." Caitlyn said embarrassed.

"The votes tomorrow, dear, and all the polls say the 'True Sheriff of Piltover' will be wining the vote almost unanimously." He replied in a chuckle.

Alexander budded in, "You see what I mean. You are the Sheriff already."

"Yes and you will not be paying." Mr. Tellenbaum said sharply in a humorous manner. "Do not try to fight me on this for I shall not lose."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Thank you." Caitlyn replied cheerfully.

"Follow me, if you would." He said as he led them to his car.

When they reached his vehicle he opened the trunk and pulled out a box holding her hat. He was a very formal man when it came to clothes. They would never be delivered by him without being in a box, cradling them gently. He handed it to her and held out a clipboard and a pen for her to sign. She did, and handed the box to Alexander to hold it while she opened it to pull it out.

Mr. Tellenbaum started his normal explanation of what he did to repair it. "I was able to close all the holes well enough so you will not be able to tell they were ever made. Also the lens I got from your mother is already installed. Not my forte, mind you, but I believe I did a splendid job."

"You certainly did, thank you, it looks brand new." Caitlyn said overjoyed. "You know I was curious how you got it? I didn't send it to you."

"Ah yes," he started, "one of your deputies, Zachary Figgin, came by with it after the cleanup started. He said it was yours and I knew it was before he said it. So I took the liberty of just repairing it anyways. He said he found it lying on the police vehicle's hood from the crime scene and he brought it to me because I am his family's tailor also."

"Wait," Caitlyn started to respond with a puzzling look on her face. "It was blown off my head onto the ground. Who- Oh whatever I am sure someone noticed it and moved it out of the way. Anyways, thank you again for this and thank you for your kindness."

"Always a pleasure Ma'am. Oh wait there was something else. The card you keep inside it I removed before I fixed it, but I believe I put it back in the right spot."

"Card? What card?" Caitlyn said as she looked at Henry.

"Inside it, look there. That's not yours?"

Caitlyn flipped the hat over and saw the card. She pulled it out to take a look at it. On the card was an ornate capital "C" all by itself. "This isn't mine." She looked up at Alexander. "Who put this card in my hat?"

Alexander's face was paler than it had ever been and the look of terror he had was frightening Caitlyn.

"Alex? What's wrong?" She said worried.

Alexander barely formed the words that were terrifying his mind, "The police report listed the debris found among the wreckage of the buildings that went down. In them were thousands of cards exactly like this one." He gulped. Then he grabbed her hands in his forcing her to drop her top-hat. He gripped hard to let her know he was here for her. "Caitlyn, whoever pulled off that bank heist, put that card in your hat."


	7. Destruction and Reincarnation

**Chapter 7: Destruction and Reincarnation**

_Present. Bedlam Gang current hideout._

"Boss, we found him." Josh ran into Barkley's quarters gasping for air as if he had run a kilometer. He had run seven through the streets of Piltover.

Barkley responded in an angry tone, "Silk? Well get him geared up and ready. We've been planning this heist for weeks. I don't have time for you gu-."

"Boss!" At this moment VI had walked in, her breath was as calm as if she was just sitting down. She also ran seven kilometers at a much faster pace. "He's dead."

Barkley was stunned, "What!? How!?"

"He was found shot dead in an alleyway." VI responded. Barkley fell back in his chair unable to respond. "Josh and I were just down at the station stealing copies of reports to make sure no one was monitoring us. I saw his name and read the report. I sent Josh on ahead to tell you about Silk while I read over the files. There's something else." She paused to let Barkley focus on her. "We can't get his body for his ashes. Apparently he's part of a criminal investigation. He was shot several times. The shots formed a capital "C" on his chest. They think it's related to that bank robbery two weeks ago."

"So… does that blow-back on us?" Barkley said in a worried tone.

"No." VI responded

"Does it change our plans? Can we still pull it off today?" Barkley sounded more worried.

VI paused while she thought about it. "We spent a month studying the plans I wrote up. So I will be able to change them in an hour, but it will take us a week to study the new plans well enough."

"Okay, okay. One week. Tonight we mourn his loss. In a week we honor his memory." Barkley said with pride.

"Hey," VI started, "there is one more thing. I think he stole some of the designs I had made."

"Which ones?" Barkley asked.

"One was a blueprint for an automated mounting platform and the other was an attachment design for a guided rocket launcher." VI said with a sorrow tone. "But that's not the bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Barkley said.

"The bad news is the police reports on the bank robbery report automated mounted machine guns firing on police officers." VI replied.

"So will they be able to track them back to you?" Barkley said with anger in his voice.

VI responded as calmly as she could. "No. All the evidence was destroyed and I left no fingerprints or clues on the designs. I don't think they have the blueprints. Or else it would have shown up in the reports."

"This was almost too close." Barkley said.

"I know. I know." VI sounded disappointed. Not in just herself, but also in Silk. 'Bastard. Stupid bastard.' Then VI said, "There is one more thing, and I know for sure it will not blow-back on us. Remember how Silk approached us a week beforehand about those buyers for the trucks we made. They were used in the heist."

"Is there anymore bad news!" Barkley shouted.

"I might be having my first period." VI said in a serious tone. Barkley looked like he was going to explode. So VI ended her joke. "Kidding! Seriously, though nothing will come back and stick on us."

Josh finally chimed in, "So what now?"

Barkley sighed. "Go get Pratley and Marcus. We're going to our favorite bar to drink away Silk."

VI interrupted his sentiment, "Are you kidding me!? He stole from us to sell our stuff to what may have been some mass murderer. And you want to drink to his memory?"

"Well yeah." Barkley said as VI's face twisted in confusion. "VI, were the Bedlam Gang. I'm proud of him. Stealing right under our noses to make some cash. I mean we're criminals here VI, it's what we do."

VI realized that what Barkley said made good sense. Trust in the crew depended on use. Silk thought the money outweighed the use of the gang. Paid the price, but still he did what any of them would probably do. Take the money. "Still, though. Can I hate the fucking bastard for stealing my designs?"

"Oh sure you can. Just because we're all proud of him doesn't mean we don't hate him." Barkley said as he stood up. "Anyways let's go get drunk. VI, are you coming?"

"No one will serve me I'm eleven years old. Besides I need to get these plans ready." VI said.

Josh turned to look at her and waited until VI met his gaze. "VI, you look like your fifteen. Where we are taking you they don't care if you're a fucking toddler. You got a coin; they'll pour you a shot."

So VI went. Money, for the Bedlam Gang, was no issue tonight. Everyone knew the crew and they were all wise enough to not push them too far. But alcohol can be a tricky poison. Of course the bartender and his waitresses waited on their every demand. And the whores almost got into a catfight over who will be with the boys that night. The gang was small staffed, but they were notoriously big time. VI tried her first drink. A tall shot of Bilgewater Whiskey. She instantly loved the taste, so she drank more. She started feeling woozy after her twenty-second shot. Everyone was goading her on to drink more. Barkley had to stop her at thirty-six to see if she was ok, and she was. She had fifty-seven shots over the course of the night. She never got more than a buzz going and it wore off far too quickly. Whatever she was, she wasn't really human. Probably easier to chalk this one up to the Zaun Military labs. You remember how I said alcohol is a tricky poison. Well the only trick it played on her is her not noticing how senseless it made those around her act. It was a bar full of drunken fools.

This one guy probably thought he was really funny, and if the night had gone on without a fight his remark would have probably been pretty funny. But what he said put VI in a bad mood faster than a bullet could leave a barrel. All it took was, "Well she drinks well enough, but when do her tits come in!" and VI was off like a loose cannon. She started the bar fight by caving in his throat with one solid punch. From there it didn't matter much to the drunken customers that they were the Bedlam Gang. Nor did it matter that VI started the fight. Everyone fought with everyone. Luckily for the gang VI made quick work of the most prominent fighters. The other members of her gang were too wasted to handle anymore than the guy right in front of him. Not VI though. She held off ten men at a time. Breaking bones and busting skulls. You know the movies where men are thrown through the windows of bars. In her case it was literal. Nothing but ragdolls to her. In the end the gang strolled home. Not broken or beaten, but triumphant. The guys all dragging back their toys for the night. It was a good time.

The morning was normal to VI. No dreaded hangover she was warned of or nothing. When she woke she started on the new plans. The whores woke first, as usual. She ignored them as they collected their things and their pay to leave. One came out to where VI was working. She had left her purse there. VI looked up to notice her and was taken aback momentarily by this women strolling around the gangs common area fully nude. For whatever reason, VI couldn't stop looking at her. Probably because she couldn't believe this whore was so bold. VI noticed her beauty and thought to herself, 'Is that what I'll look like one day? I hope I do, she's pretty.'

The lady noticed VI staring and smiled. "See something you like?" She asked in a girlish charm.

"Yeah, I, no. I have a lot of work to do so whatever." VI said trying to regain her composure.

"Oh yeah? What you working on?" She said as she walked across the room to hover over VI.

"Nothing that concerns a whore. Its gang related." VI snapped back.

"Ooo! Quite an attitude you have there. Is it to match that incredible strength you showed us last night?" The lady said in a sweet voice.

VI responded, "What? No. Just go away."

"Oh relax." Said the lady. "By the way I found your display really exciting." She licked her upper lip on her last word.

VI responded with a snide comment, "I am assuming you know the difference between a little girl and a grown desperate man, right?"

The lady laughed and said, "All I know for sure is that men with power know what they want. And you are a powerful woman. So I will ask you again. See something you like?"

"Gross!" VI replied.

"Oh please," the lady started, "you wouldn't believe the things I have done with men and women. Don't be shy." As she kept talking she sat down on the bench VI was on and snuggled in real close placing her arm around VI's shoulders. "Only people with the right interests, **stare** at something they like."

VI was scared, not frightened, just nervous. She trembled a bit. She could feel the warmth in the woman's embrace. It felt comforting and nice. Without thinking she turned and wrapped her arms around the woman in a deep embrace. She could hear and feel the woman's heartbeat. She remembered XJ and the good feeling she would get when they could hold each other.

The whore was taken aback by what VI was doing and realized in her head, 'Oh my. She's just a lost little girl. She probably hasn't been hugged in years. How sad.' The woman returned the embrace and they stayed silent and intertwined for as long as the lady could stay. When the group of whores was all ready to go the two released each other and the lady gave VI a soft kiss on her cheek. "Take it easy kid, life is full of surprises. Don't let fear hold you back." With that the lady got dressed and they all left.

VI sat in silence, staring at her work. 'That was nice.' She thought to herself.

_One week later. Outside Piltovers main Ironspike mine._

"So this is the Taric Find Mine. Really impressive." Barkley stated. The crew was situated away from the mine in the tree line. They were all trained and retrained by VI's master plan to enter the mine, steal the gems and anything else of significant value, and leave without a trace. Each week a day was set to have the workers stockpile the resources that have been extracted and go home to rest while a team of Piltover officials came to pick it all up the next day. The gems sat unattended for 36 hours during this time. But they were not unguarded. A unit made up of former Piltover policemen would be paid well to watch the stash. VI had intercepted their rations in route and replaced their bread with some she drugged. The gang watched as the guards ate their meals and slowly passed out. "Alright, let's commence this operation."

Filing out of the forest they moved at a quick pace to the entrance of the mine. Josh and Marcus started binding the arms and legs of the downed guards. Pratley called up the elevator as VI and Barkley prepped all of the crew's gear. VI has intercepted a shipment of mining gear. The crew got dressed and looked like a disorganized mining crew. All their gear was meant for inspectors. If someone was still down there Pratley would assume the role of their head inspector and handle the individual without incident. Just a quick in and out without trouble. VI briefed them all on every known exit if something went wrong. They filled themselves into the elevator and started their decent.

_Present. At Piltover's Sheriff Department._

"Sheriff!" Alexander gasped out as he barged into Roy's office. The name on the window hadn't been scraped off yet and replaced with Caitlyn's. She hadn't been able to tell the janitorial staff to take care of it yet.

"What's up? You look disturbed." Caitlyn responded from behind her desk.

"A little." Alexander continued. "We just got a report from an undercover officer working a tail on the Bedlam Gang. He followed them home from the bar thinking they had just pulled of a heist so he staked them out for a week." He paused. "He has reported that they just left Piltover's urban area and moved off towards the Ironspike Mountains."

Caitlyn looked straight into his eyes. "Get three squads of five prepped and ready and three more deputies for our team. We move out in an hour."

_Inside the lowest level of the Taric Find Mine._

They made a mistake. Or more importantly VI did. It wasn't there fault the collection date was moved to tomorrow because of complications on the end of the cargo truck. As the truck had left Piltover's Gem Facility, a wheel fell right off the back axle. They had to reschedule and decided to pay any workers who stayed an extra day in the mine overtime. Luckily VI had contingency plans drawn up and the gang was all up to speed. They strolled in and blended amongst the workers as if they really belonged there.

"I'm sorry no one said there would be an inspection crew today." A manager came up to them and spoke plainly.

Pratley responded without missing a beat. "Yes, and we weren't expecting the cargo team to screw up so badly. If you aren't aware it costs a lot to pay so many people overtime. We are just here to make sure their incentive hasn't changed and production doesn't slow from their stress."

The manager realized his stupidity and corrected himself. "Right. Sorry. I just wasn't informed prior, but now I completely understand why. The schedule has been messed up and next week will be a short one at that."

"Indeed, hopefully this day will be able to make up for it." Pratley responded with dignity. "So we will begin our inspections soon. I advise you to take some time now to let your team leaders understand what's happening."

"Of course, sir. I will go do that now." The manager said as he strolled off at a brisk pace.

Marcus chimed in, "That was brilliant Pratley."

VI struck Marcus in the arm. "No names. Now everyone go pretend to watch them work. Look like your investigating their technique. Jot down some fake notes, but don't interact with them. If they approach you tell them you have no time for them and order them back to work." They all nodded. "Meet back here in two hours and we will start on moving the gem pile."

They all took off to the posts they were assigned by VI to go. VI went with Pratley. She wore a different uniform meant to show she was Pratley's assistant. As they came across their first station they noticed all the workers were dressed in black. Actually they wore bright orange; VI pointed it out to Pratley. The uniforms were covered in the chalky, black dust chiseled from around gem finds.

VI nudged Pratley, "I know I said not to interact, but you still have a fake job to convince them of. Go to the lead guy and ask him rhetorically why the men aren't wiping off the dust regularly. He will realize that they are forgetting the rules about keeping fifty percent orange coverage shown. Just steer him to see it himself. That's him with the least amount of dust."

Pratley walked over towards the man and called him to come over to talk. "Hey, you" He signaled to him and waited until the lead man noticed him. "I have a concern you need to know about."

The lead man walked over and said, "What can I do for your, sir?"

Pratley started with great conviction for the role he was playing, "I see you guys working, and I got to say. You really seem to be working at one-hundred and ten percent, but I see something I don't like. Can you guess?" The man shook his head. Pratley continued, "The uniforms are orange, right?"

The man's eyes opened wide. "Yes, sir! Sorry, I will get to that at once." Then the man rushed over and gathered his crew to brief them quickly on what they needed to do.

Pratley went back over to stand next to VI. She was jotting down fake notes, doing her fake job. "You did well." She said finally.

"You say that as if I needed your praise. Just focus on your work or I will find someone to replace you." Pratley said sternly.

VI looked up at him and said coldly, "Reel it in. You did well, but don't oversell it."

They moved on to the next station and continued in the same fashion. Sometimes they passed the others as they went on pretending to inspect the workers. By the end VI had compiled some convincing notes and made sure to make some for the other guys. Just incase they screwed up. These notes had to be looked over by the manager before they were approved to be mailed back to the Gem Facility in Piltover. If he wasn't convinced they were authentic he would trip a silent alarm wired to the Police Department back in Piltover New Town. They met back at the manager's office at the correct time. Everything was going as planned.

_On Route 17. Direct road from Piltover Edgeland to the northern most area of the Ironspike Mountaiin Range._

The Sheriff and her deputies were driving along at a fast pace, not racing, just fast. Caitlyn was in the passenger seat while Alexander drove. Zachary and two others, Clarence and Brian, were in the back. This was Squad Alpha. Beta, Delta, and Omega squads were following behind them. Caitlyn designed these names to add her touch to her new command. Zachary was on the radio communicating with the Police Department, "Okay, I got it. Sheriff, the Police say today is the day the Taric Find Mine is scheduled for gem collection. But they had a problem earlier so they've reschedule for tomorrow."

Caitlyn responded calmly, "Did they say when the information on the scheduling was released?"

"Just this morning." Zachary replied.

Caitlyn made a decision quickly. "Okay, we know the Bedlam Gang would probably get information on today's normal schedule. So they are probably there. They have to be getting slowed down by the workers that stayed. Are there any scheduled inspections for the mine?"

Zachary started to ask the Police. Then he responded, "No, the Gem Facility claims no inspection crews are in the field."

Caitlyn pondered this for a moment. "Okay, we have to assume they would use an inspection crew for cover. Call the manager of the mine and ask if there is one. If there is, tell him to trip the alarm, but continue to let them play their game. I assume there is a security detail stationed outside the mine. Call them next."

Zachary called up the mine and instructed the manager on what to do. Then he called the security detail. "They are not responding."

Caitlyn rubbed her forehead with her hands. "Well that's bad. We have to assume the Bedlam Gang is armed and dangerous."

_Back inside the Taric Find Mine._

VI detested the use of guns. To her guns complicated any situation. They were a liability to the ones pulling a heist. They escalated any response from authority with the threat of deadly violence. More so she feared a gun in her hands meant she would get caught up in a mass murdering situation. She had nightmares about the innocent prisoners she was ordered to kill back in the Zaun labs. Things that hadn't happen would, and she would see herself running around slaughtering them all with pleasure. Sometimes she would even dream she was killing XJ and it would rouse her in the dead of night, panicking.

Her reservation against guns was more influenced by professionalism in the jobs. So it was infuriating for her to see the gang members each holding out a pistol, waving them around wildly. When they had gone to turn in their fake documents, VI noticed the mine manager quickly hang up as they approached. He looked like he was trying to hold back fear. She told Barkley, and after the manager stalled for fifteen minutes with useless complaints, VI informed Barkley that the silent alarm must have been tripped and their cover is blown. Barkley's reaction to this news was to draw out a pistol and press the barrel to the manager's skull while he commanded that the man should turn off the alarm and send the paperwork on through. Then Barkley ordered all the workers to meet at the manager's office, while Josh, Marcus, and Pratley went out to greet the crowd with pistols of their own. VI knew this was bad.

VI and Barkley were behind the manager as he sat at his desk, hands on his head. "You idiots! I said no guns." VI yelled into Barkley's face. "This is only going to make it harder to escape."

Barkley came back at her with, "So many things have gone wrong with our plans, so I don't think your opinion is going to make the calls on my crews heist anymore. Just do as I say and everything will be fine. Now you and Marcus start loading the elevator with gems. Also take this." He hands her a zapping pistol. "Use it if you have too. Don't hesitate. I need to know you're on my side here."

"I am, but this could get ugly if they are already outside. I think that phone call warned him about us. This means the police were already on their way." VI replied.

Barkley swore under his breath, "Okay, you and Marcus go up the elevator and rig the entrance with mining explosives."

"No way." VI refused. "The explosives you would need to cave in the entrance could shake the whole mine. It might cave in the other smaller escape points. Or collapse the entire mine."

"Fine." Barkley walked out to the crowd leaving VI with the manager.

The manager let out a frantic whisper, "I heard what you were saying and it's true. You aren't going to let them do that are you?"

VI looked at him with anger, "Just shut the fuck up."

Barkley came back into the office and said, "Okay VI, go move the gems with Marcus out the northeastern opening."

"What about you, Josh, and Pratley?" VI asked.

"Were going to stay here and make sure the police can't use the elevator. If it doesn't go back up they can't use it." Barkley responded.

VI waited a moment to think before she left the office, 'They won't be able to figure out how to rig the explosives. I shouldn't be worried, but I am.' Then she went out to where Marcus was loading a mining vehicle with gems.

When the container in the back was loaded to its maximum she and Marcus started driving it to the designated opening. Leaving Barkley, Josh, and Pratley back at the base of the Mine entrance. VI was needed to help guide Marcus through the confusing tunnels. She was the only one amongst them that actually memorized the tunnels correctly. They had to move slowly, but as they reached the opening they picked up speed and went out towards the tree line to stash the truck. As they went back to go back inside the mine the others were just running out.

VI spoke first, "Wait how do you guys know you weren't followed?"

Pratley responded to the question proudly. "We cut the power to the inside so they couldn't communicate after we barricaded them all in the office. Then we rigged the down function on the elevator to set-off the explosives we attached underneath it."

VI's eyes opened wide. "You are fucking psychopaths. You've basically killed them all. As soon as the police try to enter the mine, they and all the workers will die."

"And in the confusion, they will let us slip away." Barkley said in a sly manner. "Besides VI why do you give a shit about them? We're rich. We will be able to buy a town for ourselves. I might even be the mayor just to keep us in power. Don't waste pity on them, we made it big. Enjoy it VI, we're in the clear. The witnesses will all be dead. Police everywhere will know to fear us. We accomplished so much today. Be happy."

Suddenly VI was no longer in control of her actions. She knew if she ran in to help them the gang would gun her down. So she did what she thought might be best. At that moment Marcus was still in the truck. Pratley stood to her left, Josh to her right, both looked weary of VI's intentions. Barkley was right in front of her and noticed it too. Without hesitation VI charged the Zapping pistol holstered on her left and pulled it out as she charged Barkley head on. She ducked from his left handed punch and got behind him. She used him for quick cover as she fired the first shot at Josh, who collapsed to the ground instantly. The zapping pistol is not designed to knock out a target. It directly attacks the nervous system causing an extreme amount of pain, which can cause you to black out. As the weapon recharged Pratley reached for his gun. VI then pushes Barkley into Pratley and runs towards where Marcus was just leaving the vehicle's driver side. Before she rounds the truck she fires the next shot at Pratley, striking him in the head. He topples to the ground on his back choking on his own saliva. As VI runs at Marcus she grabs him by the collar and quickly head butts his jaw, hard into his skull. Marcus is incapacitated and bleeding from the mouth. VI then grabs a heavy gem from the back and climbs in the driver side. She sets the gem on the drive pedal and shifts the vehicle to neutral. The engine revs and starts whining. As she opens the passenger side door Barkley comes in the driver side with his gun out pointing at her. They lock eyes as he pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. VI is smiling, but Barkley is confused. VI holds up the zapping pistol to aim it at Barkley's head. She says, "I turned your safety on when I got behind you. Bye Barkley, it was fun." With that she fires a bolt at Barkley dropping him down and out of the truck. Then she flicked the gear switch to the drive position and hopped out as it started to speed itself through the woods.

They weren't dead, but now they couldn't stop her from going back into the mine. Even if they got up quick enough to run after her they wouldn't. They would chase down those gems, she knew it. As she ran into the mine at upwards of 40 kph she pondered over why she just did that. They would never forgive her. She would never be allowed to rejoin them. Not after this. She might even be forced to kill them in the future, but she hoped not. Somewhere inside of her she just wanted to be a good person. She couldn't understand it herself, but she had no real plan. Just a desire to help others.

_Taric Find Mine main entrance._

Caitlyn looked over the bound and unconscious guards at the entrance with the rest of Alpha Squad around her. She knew they were alive, but she just wondered if the Bedlam Gang might not be armed. She had sent Beta and Delta squads to check the other openings to the mine. Omega Squad was bringing the elevator up at the moment. Their leader, Wallace Artson, volunteered to head in with his squad first. Caitlyn reluctantly agreed. She knew that she was the sheriff now and the first team in can't have the sheriff in it. She was starting to regret the job for the protocol alone. Wallace was an experienced veteran. Twenty-five years as a deputy. He was the first of them to recognize Caitlyn's skill outside of Roy, and encouraged the other deputies to follow her lead early on in her career.

When the elevator reached the top he signaled Caitlyn to come over. He waited until she was closer to say, "Okay, we're set. Can we get the go ahead?"

Caitlyn was still weary, there were so many what-ifs left unsolved. But she decided it was time to move in. She got on her radio and started to speak to everyone at once. "Alright, listen up. Beta and Delta wait outside the opening nearest you for Omega to give an order on how to proceed. Alpha will wait here to handle the entrance. Go in quick and clean and if you find trouble do not fire the first shot. Good luck everyone. And don't any of you dare fucking die on me." Loud laughter poured in on every frequency as the squads signaled their complies. As they laughed she strolled over to where Alexander was waiting.

Alexander began to speak to her as Omega closed the elevator door. "That was good. It's important not to micromanage everything they-."

_KABOOM! CHINK! RUMBLE-RUMBLE! RUMBLE-RUMBLE! RUMBLE-RUMBLE!_

Explosives detonated from beneath the elevator sending it flying into the roof of the cave entrance and then it wedged in-between the cave and the collapsing mineshaft. The mountainside collapsed into itself creating an expanding pit that dragged everything down the shaft.

Caitlyn screamed, "NOOOOO!" as the mine started to implode.

_Base of the Taric Find Mine. Outside the manager's office._

VI had just finished moving the last of the rocks that were holding the office door closed, when suddenly she heard a massive explosion. The miners started barreling out of the door, running away from the shaft so she followed them as they ran away from the explosion. The entire mine shook and loose rocks cascaded down on them killing some as they ran. VI was nearly crushed by one very large one. A lead guy was in front of her when it came down. He was gone. As she kept going she looked back only once to see the cave walls crumbling apart like a gram cracker. As she ran she pushed slower miners forward hard, but after a few seconds she realized she had to start thinking about herself too.

After a few minutes of frantic running, the cavern stopped rumbling. They stopped and looked around to get their bearings and let the manager get a head count. Only forty-seven of the eighty-five miners had made it. The forty-nine of them, including VI and the manager, had no lights besides the ones on their heads. They all took off in pairs to check the other openings to find a way out. VI noticed she could still see rather well in the dark.

For some reason the manager felt thankful enough to VI to trust her. He walked over to see her and froze as her eyes met his gaze. "What are you?" He asked.

VI was puzzled for a second, but responded anyways, "What do you mean?"

"Well your pupils are fully dilated but they are also glowing in a light blue hue. So I will ask you again. What are you?" The manager replied.

VI realized that whatever it was he saw and whatever reason it was that she could see so well in the dark, was probably the work of the Zaun White-coats. "I don't really know, but I think I am still human."

"Well whatever you are, thank you for coming back for us." He said in a calming tone. "We warned your friends that the way they rigged those explosives would tear the mine apart."

VI responded without a second thought, "I cut my ties with them. We aren't friends and never really were."

_Outside the Taric Find Mine entrance. _

Dust settled everywhere as the rumbling stopped. The Beta and Delta squads had already started heading back and calling in constantly to ask what happened. Alpha Squad was at the scene looking for any survivors, but the indented mineshaft left no signs of anyone being on the surface. All the members of Omega Squad were either in pieces amongst the wreckage or at the bottom of the mineshaft.

Caitlyn wanted to cry. She wanted to break down and beat her fists into the dirt until they fell off her arms. But she couldn't. She had to keep it together. She kept looking at Alexander to get a sign of what should be done next. She couldn't think. 'What do we do now? How did this happen? The Bedlam gang!' The thought erupted like a furious call into her head. "Everyone, listen up," she almost screamed into her radio set, "The Bedlam Gang just took out Omega Squad. Find them now. Search the whole mountain. Shoot on sight."

Alexander started to walk towards Caitlyn, but she held out her hand to stop him. He looked into the fury of her eyes and said, "I know you're angry Cait. We all are, but we can't just fly off the handle and go kill them. We need to arrest them."

"Be quiet!" Caitlyn bellowed. "I gave you an order, so follow it. Also it's Sheriff Caitlyn; don't ever call me Cait again."

Alexander felt like his heart just wrenched. He knew she just needed comfort, but he also knew this wasn't the time. As if he could hear the thoughts of all the other deputies worry, he confirmed the order to break the silence. "Okay, let's find them. Remember, shoot on sight." He gulped on his last word. Then he moved Alpha Squad out around the mountain.

Caitlyn stayed at the mine entrance while the others looked around. 'Why did they knock out the guards and then rig the mineshaft to explode when it was used? This was intentional. They knew we were coming. They wanted to kill me. They thought I'd go in first. It should have worked. It should have been me!'

_Back inside the Taric Find Mine._

After waiting an hour for the miners to regroup, it was discovered that all the entrances were caved-in and too unstable to dig through safely. Panic started in quick. VI was also in panic. She had not thought of the possibility of a cave-in. Mostly because she assumed the idiots she was with wouldn't be armed. She felt stupid and naive.

VI noticed some of the lead guys were huddled around the mine manager, so she assumed they were forming a plan. When she got closer to them they all backed away with fright. The manager said, "Don't be scared men. She's on our side."

VI asked the group, "So, what have we got to work with down here?"

One of the lead guys reluctantly said. "We have some equipment set up at the southeastern end of the mine. It was the next spot we were going to make an entrance. The dig is 100 meters to the surface, and our data shows it is very stable. The problem is your gang cut the power down here so we can't activate the crystals in our techmaturgy. We need a small cycle of power to utilize the greater power in the crystals."

"I know how techmaturgy works." VI replied quickly. "How much do we need?"

Well," The manager started, "I see you have that zapping pistol, but the machinery would need about sixteen of the cores from that weapon, just to functionalize one drill."

VI pondered a moment, then said, "Lead me to it and I will see what I can do."

The manager and three of his lead guys lead VI to the new entrance site. It took twenty minutes to reach. When they had arrived VI saw it all before they pointed it out.

The manager said, "You see it's all solid granite. The hole would lead right out the side of this mountain. Any hole would be stable, but it would take us a year to chisel through by hand, if were lucky."

VI thought about everything at risk. Cleanair would run out in the mine within a few days. She also couldn't wait because many of the men were injured and wouldn't last very long. The drills ran upwards from 30 ksi (30,000 psi) of force against a surface. Most granite breaks after 25 ksi. The energy required to sustain the crystals in them was 0.24 gigawatts. The zapping pistol stores a charge at 0.015 gigawatts that fixates a current of 40 milliamperes when striking a shot against a target. Any drill in front of her needs all 0.24 gigawatts. (Electrical Engineering is not my forte.) Everything seemed very hopeless.

She could hear echoing from back where they came from, of the miners panicking. They sounded like they were beginning to lose it and VI felt like she'd start doing the same. She walked around the site thinking about anything that could help them, but she couldn't see a solution. Then she noticed something and called the manager over to tell her what it is. "Hey you, come over here."

"Yeah, sorry we never got introduced." The manager said as he walked over to VI. "Name's Derek, what's yours?"

VI answered, "V-I, but you can just call me VI. What is this I'm looking at?"

"Okay, VI, this a JR-17 Robotic Mining rig. We use it to carry larger rock chunks from a dig to the crushing machinery. You just climb into that seat and use the exoskeleton to haul the rocks around. But it too requires at least 0.06 gigawatts to sustain the crystals output." Derek replied.

VI was still curious about it, "The whole machine or just the arms?"

"Well," Derek started, "the whole machine needs a lot of power but the crystals that power the arms need, oh I want to say, about 0.02 gigawatts to sustain their output. You know we do use them to knock loser chunks of rock free."

"How many ksi does it output when you use them to strike rock?" VI continued asking, feeling better each time she got a response.

The manager started to see where she was going, "Um, upwards of 15 ksi, but that can't break granite in one strike."

VI put the idea together in her head within a second. "What if we detached the arms and ran just their crystals on the zapping pistol, then one of us fitted themselves with it to use on the granite?"

"I don't know if there would be enough power to sustain the crystals. Maybe enough to output 7 ksi, maybe. But also no one could take the recoil of each blow without shattering every bone in their body. You would still have to power the rig." The manager said with his hopes dashing away.

"I could take it. Trust me." VI said excited.

The manager put the proverbial foot down on VI's plan. "Look young lady, I am going to assume you aren't completely human, but you still seem human, so I can't let you kill yourself trying this."

VI looked at him with a fierce expression, "Try to stop me and I'll level you. We cannot do nothing. So help me or don't, I am doing this."

The manager sighed, "I'll get some tools to take it apart."

The two of them had some help as they stripped the arms off the rig as well as the engine attached to its back. As a few of them gutted the arms to make room for some makeshift controls, VI started taking parts off the engine that weren't a necessity. Finally she twisted and turned enough components to make the engine as compact as a backpack, but still function. She disassembled the zapping pistol and installed its core into the engine Their was only enough room for one crystal. So VI started looking over the other machines for anything she could use. She found a few coils and tied them into the crystal she had placed in the backpack engine. Then she started molding gloves with hinges around her hands that would attach to the inside of the arms. She installed them inside the arms making a makeshift pair of hextech gauntlets. She designed the power tethers from the engine to the gauntlets with the ability to be disconnected by the huge fingers on them. She couldn't remove the gauntlets with them connected to the engine.

When she was all done she started her explanation of how it would work to everyone there, because until that point they had kept questioning everything she was doing and it was quite annoying. Placing the hextech gauntlets at their feet she started, "Okay, so the engine will run a continuous flow of 0.015 gigawatts from the zapping pistol core. The coils will loop the feed of energy into around and back into the crystal causing a charge to constantly form. I have set the cut-off at 1.5 gigawatts of stored energy. I am aware the full rig runs 6 gigawatts, but this setup is more efficient at releasing force energy. The gauntlets will channel the energy at eighty percent efficiency. Meaning 1.5 gigajoules per second of energy will be forced through the gauntlets at the rock with a pressure of 32 ksi. The impact point is set as a trigger to release the energy. This will break the rock on each hit. The engine shielding however focuses the lost output directly behind me. It will allow me to withstand the recoil of each strike without knocking me over. The problem is that it will level anything directly behind me." She then points at a control panel inside the right gauntlet. "In here I can lower the cut-off for the system incase I don't need a full force strike. It takes a few seconds in between each charge and I can discharge any energy I don't need back into the crystal to release it without causing damage to the machine. If all goes well I can punch my way through the rock in a few hours." (Seriously, if my physics are wrong feel free to tell me, also remember that I am using a crystal from their universe that has unknown and possibly chaotic properties to it.)

After answering a few questions and re-explaining everything twice they finally understood the main point. They would be free in a few hours. They helped her check that everything was in place and the manager decided that for safety only he and one lead guy would remain to watch her from a distance, as the rest of them would go lead the other miners over here.

VI approached the granite and activated her gauntlets. She thought to herself, 'Please work, and please don't get me killed.' Then, when the first charge was complete she readied her left arm and took her first strike at maximum power.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

She shattered the granite in a 30 centimeter dome around her strike. She was overjoyed and used some smaller forced shots to clear the rubble for another powerful strike.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

Again she broke granite apart expanding the hole she just made. She could feel it now. She was moving mountains. Surprisingly she barely felt a shock in her bones. It scared her a little. 'What am I?' She wondered.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

After breaking rock up and down to make the wall large enough to let people go through, and clearing it out a few times, she called Derek up to measure her progress. He came forward, checked it and said, "1.2 meters in 3 minutes. WOW! At this rate you should reach the surface in a little less than two hours. But before you continue I need to say something important."

"What's up?" VI asked worried. "Can some men not get through, because I think I can use these gauntlets to carry them? A few micro bursts used continuously will let me carry over a metric ton in weight."

Derek continued, "No it's not that. But thank you for being kind enough to offer. It's the phone call the Sheriff's Department made to my office."

"Sheriff's Department? Shit! I have history with those people." VI responded in panic.

"Yes I know," Derek kept going, "They warned me about you specifically. They said you were the most dangerous member of your gang. But I have to say they must be out of their minds, because you are a blessed godsend VI. This is why I want to tell you something. When we get out, just run. Run away and we will say we dug ourselves out. Please, you've done so much for us. It's all we can offer you."

VI felt a warm feeling from his words, "Thank you." Then she turned and charged her next strike. She waited for Derek to get safely away before she started again.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!_

_Outside the Taric Find Mine on the northeastern end._

"Beta Squad, Delta Squad, this is Alpha Squad, we found the Bedlam Gang." Alexander called on the radio. "They are unconscious at the northeastern entrance. Caitlyn, how far out are you?"

Caitlyn replied, "I can see you through my scope. I'll be right there."

Alexander wondered in his mind, 'Why did you point your scope at me?' The thought terrified him a bit, but he let it go and refocused.

Caitlyn trotted up to the site and stopped. She looked at the gang and commented, "I only see three here. Where are the other two?"

Zachary pointed at the trees and brush that had been cleared.

Caitlyn sighted up her scope and all the lenses on her top-hat. She saw a mining truck on its side at the end of the clearing. Wheels still spinning. Then she saw a figure move around the outside of the truck. "Zachary, take Clarence and Brian down to that truck and check it out. If something moves, shoot it." They all looked at Alexander and he nodded to them so they went.

Alexander started to speak, "These three are out cold we can't wake them. They only have pistols on-."

"Are you trying to undermine me?" Caitlyn asked outright. "Why are they waiting to take my orders from you?

Alexander sighed, "Sheriff, I am not undermining you. You are doing that to yourself with these crazy emotional orders."

"You get this through your head Alexander. I am in charge. You follow my orders. You all do." She responded coldly.

Alexander nodded and said, "Yes, ma'am."

At that moment Zachary called in on the radio, "Sheriff. One was here, but he ran away before we were close enough to fire on him. We can't locate the girl. Should we pursue the runner?"

As if Alexander's words had finally sunk in she responded, "No. Come back here." She grabbed her radio set and said, "All squads listen up. Search the mountain for open entrances. We need to secure the miners. That is our first priority." Then she turned to face Alexander. "Call it in we might need an excavation crew." He nodded and proceeded to radio the Gem Facility. She thought to herself, 'I almost lost it there, Thank you Alex.'

_Outside the Taric Find Mine on the southeastern side of the mountain._

The mountain rumbled loudly and blew chunks of rocks from its surface. After two hours of beating the granite, VI was able to make an exit for the miners. She let them go first as she stayed to inspect the gauntlets.

Derek approached her with a look of joy, "Thank you! Thank you! We can't possibly thank you enough for what you have done."

"No problem, just remember what you told me you'd do." VI responded.

Derek paused, "Yes, of course we all remember. We promise to tell them nothing about you being here. Now go quickly. The noise no doubt echoed throughout the mountain range. It will lead them straight here. Here take this," he hands here some keys, "they are my car keys. If you can reach my vehicle, use it to get away. Keep it if you like. It's the only red one in the lot. The lot is, well I am sure you saw it as you came in. Now go quickly."

With that VI leaped out the hole and stormed down the mountain side towards the car lot near the mine's main entrance. On her way around the mountain she had to hide from a group of deputies combing the mountain side in her path. When she got to the lot she found the vehicle, climbed in and took off down the road. In her head she pondered the events of the day. All her hopes to pull off the heist with ease. All the fortune she let go. And all the destruction she made in her wake. This was easily all her fault. She planned the heist. She looked for all the variables for doing it right. She still felt naïve for not taking into account the actions her team could take to blow the whole affair. She kicked herself for not suspecting the Sheriff's Department would be tailing the gang. 'It's over. I am not in the gang and I am alone again. What the hell do I do now?' Then it hit her like a slap in the face. 'I can make amends for my misdeeds. I can be a good person and help people, just like I helped those miners. Why not? It seems like a better way to live than hurting people who are innocent. I will be an enemy to all criminals from this point on. For now on VI stands for VINDICATE.'


	8. Seven Lonely Years of Six: Part One

**Chapter 8: Seven Lonely Years of Six: Part One**

_Present. Bedlam Gang current hideout._

A single source of noise echoed throughout the gang's current headquarters. Ruffling footsteps and the bends of paper along with a hurried breath were all that could be heard. In the common area were two robotic gauntlets next to a metal backpack. They were stacked next to each other in a way that made it look as if someone had been rushing to get them off.

VI came out into the common area hefting a duffel bag that jingled with metal clanks. She had gotten all her stuff and any equipment she could carry as well as all the gold, silver, and copper coins from the gang's safe. Barkley was not the smartest man, he had entrusted VI with the safe's design. After feeling good about everything she needed she put the gauntlets back on, grabbed the duffel bag, and headed for the door. As she reached it she saw the doorknob turn. 'Barkley!' She thought to herself. She set the bag down and charged a shot on her gauntlets at ten percent output. She set it to channel through her left gauntlet, aimed her body at the door and let it rip.

_THOOM-SNAP!_

The door, and the wall around it, shattered into pieces. From the outside of the hideout it appeared to be a visible shockwave rippling out from the side of the building, spraying wooden splinters and crushed brick in all directions. After the dust cleared VI walked out to see Barkley unconscious on the ground 7 meters away, facedown. "Barkley, you awake?" She asked mockingly as she strolls away feeling really good about what she just did.

All of VI's hiding spots were still available, but the gang knew them all so she decided to live in Piltover Edgeland back during her drive from the Taric Find Mine. The gang has no business there and she would be free to find a spot in some slum there to call home.

Piltover Edgeland was an oasis of sorts for refugees of other city-states. Anyone in exile or being hunted was given shelter there. They had to make by on their own and the police never settled any problems unless they got out of control. Piltover's governing body had decided to make the area a safe haven. They also made it clear it was their sovereign territory and made it official they would safeguard it from encroaching city-states around them. Piltover Edgeland or "Edgeover" as it was commonly referred to, was situated in desert grasslands between Bluewind Bay and the Ironspike Mountains. It was connected to neither and was right at the border to Zaun territory. So in effect the only city-state they intended to really keep out was Zaun. Piltover citizens carried identification that was difficult to forge. Of course not for VI, because she would use the systems of Piltover to create fake IDs for herself all the time. In Edgeover the identification was just simple papers with signatures from border patrol agents tasked at monitoring the district from posts on and around the outside of it. Edgeover residents were allowed to go to Piltover's other areas under the permission of these same border patrol agents.

VI took a truck ride out to Edgeover, without the driver's permission of course. The truck was bringing rations to sell to the residents of Edgeover at cost. They did it so the district wouldn't be able to burden the city-state with constant living costs. It also dropped off useless wood and metal scraps at a trusted dealer who sold them to the residents so they could make their homes. When VI was close enough she got off and started to backtrack around the district so she could make it look like she came from Demacia when she entered Edgeover. She stashed the gauntlets in her duffel bag so they wouldn't arouse suspicion.

The first thing that happened was the agents emptied the contents of her duffel bag. VI guessed they didn't care about the gauntlets or any of the equipment because they never asked. They did take 10 gold coins as an entry payment and then let her recollect her things. After accepting the rules and conditions that the border patrol agents made her listen to, even though they themselves looked as if they were tired of saying them, she signed her name to the paperwork.

The agent stopped her after she wrote "VI" and said, "Young lady, I need a real name. First and last."

VI pondered a name and then said, "Victoria Starke, that's my full name." She signed it and he stamped her papers, approving her for entry to Edgeover. She knew that Starke had meanings of strength. So it seemed to fit her well. Although inside she always would know her real name is V-I.

With her papers in order she decided to first find a plot. Before she could take a step away from the agents post a man got in her way and said, "Hello there. You're new, right? I know because I know everyone here. I bet you want to find a place to call home right away. If you have the coin I can find you a nice spot in no time. The name's Jared. Feel free to ask me anything about things you need, just have some coin for me. A simple piece of copper is enough to answer any basic question."

The man spoke so fast a normal person would be confused and off guard. VI however was unfazed. "Yeah, I'm Victoria. I need a plot. What's the cost?"

"That depends on what part of Edgeover you want to live in." Jared replied.

VI pondered what she wanted as a place to live and then said, "Somewhere kind of isolated. I want to be able to be alone."

Jared responded with a weird sense of glee, "Isolation, huh? Yeah, I got just the spot follow me. Of course leading you there will cost you 3 copper coins."

VI held out a silver coin and said, "How's about a silver coin to skip all the bullshit and take me to the best spot you know of?"

Jared nodded his head and took the coin. He bit it to check its authenticity and then pocketed it as he exclaimed, "Follow me young lady. I have just the perfect spot for you."

VI followed Jared as he led her through many different groupings of markets and homes. A lot of people made their small business stands, right outside their homes or vice versa. After a few miles he stopped at an open area. It was really open. A hill was in the middle with one side removed from erosion.

Jared motioned towards it. "Is that secluded enough for you?"

VI looked around and saw that the other homes were tens of meters away. "Yeah, this will work. What's the price?"

Jared replied, Well no one owns property here. You're just paying me to show you the spot. You're free to ask me for materials, even builders, and a good protection group."

VI looked at him with a wry expression, "Do I look like I need protection?"

"Oh, no. You don't pay for people to protect you, just your stuff. Basically you pay for a gang mark that warns others from robbing you. Vengeance is guaranteed." Jared responded. "Also for the spot finding that'll be 5 gold coins."

VI gave him the coins and said, "Alright. What is the best protection money can buy? I want my stuff to be really secure."

Jared thought a moment, "Well they aren't the most expensive, but they are the least trifled with. And by least I mean feared above all else. The Hexed Ursine are the most feared gang in Edgeover. Not actual bears, but they all our as big as bears, hehe. They will cost you 40 gold coins a month."

"Deal, find them and tell them I want their protection." VI said as she handed Jared another silver coin. He bit it again. Not the most trusting nature in the people of Edgeover. VI decided to take notice of that.

"Will do. Also you want supplies for a house and builders?" Jared said.

VI responded, "Yeah get me enough to make a nice house with 60 square meters. I don't need builders, just tools."

"Will do." Jared said as he left her alone at the base of the hill.

VI pondered while standing there looking at the site of her new home. 'It's all mine.'

After a half an hour Jared returned with a man hauling a cart filled with wood and metal panels. The wood ones had markings of the manufacturer and the metal sheets had numbers and letters on them, of which VI recognized the machines they were stripped from. There were also bags of dry cement. She paid Jared a gold coin and the man 15 gold coins. Then another 3 gold coins for the tools they brought, nails and screws included. When they left she got to work.

VI decided to cement the base first while she built the frame in the meantime. She placed part of the frame in the cement and built the other parts of to the side. The cement dried quick in the desert climate. After putting the pieces together she started digging out the hillside and made a frame inside, cementing the base. As it dried she put the wood sheets up to make walls and placed the metal sheets over them for protection as well as some for the roof. Then she went into her self-made cave and put wood against the dirt walls. This would be her very private work area, full of really secret stuff and her safe. The door she made of a large metal chunk, locked from both sides with two deadbolts and one combination padlock that would be used outside if she was out and inside if she was in. The house was done and the only contents were her and her bag. Then a knock came at the door so she went to answer.

When she opened the door three large men were standing there. The one in front of her said, "May we come in?"

VI realized right away who they were. "Please do." She said as she let them in.

When they were all in she shut the door and the same one started by saying, "We are The Hexed Ursine. I am Trent, and these two are my personal brutes. We were told you need protection for your new home."

VI stared at him and said, "Yes, 40 gold right?" She held out a bag with 42 gold pieces in it.

Trent took it from her and handed it to one of the brutes saying, "Count this for me." Then he started talking to VI. "Your name is Victoria, right? Don't care if it's a real name. We just need to know what to call you. So here's the deal, you get in a fight, doesn't matter if you didn't start it, we won't help you. You get robbed tell us and we will get everything back to you. One important thing though, never lie to us. If you do it won't just make us cut-off protection. We will also make an example out of you. Understood?"

VI nodded. "Understood."

The brute with the coins finished counting and whispered into Trent's ear. Then Trent looked at VI and said, "I appreciate your generosity. I feel like you understand how to charm the right people. That's a good quality around here." He smiled and motioned his guys to follow him outside.

Once outside VI watch as they put their mark multiple times around the outside of her house. Making it clear she was protected by them. The mark was a crudely drawn bear head with flames coming off the eyes. On the front door they put a special star above that mark. Trent explained what it was for, "Because you were serious about using us for protection we are making you preferred status. That is what the star is for. If anyone in Edgeover has any brains they would definitely not try to rob here more so than our other protected clients."

"Appreciate it." VI responded.

At that they left and VI was alone. There were a few hours left in the day so VI took off to find a bed.

Strolling down the many markets of Edgeover she saw a lot of crazy stuff. Food and knick-knacks side by side. There were many different whore houses with the girls showing themselves right outside. VI noticed them and thought of that whore from a week ago, and then moved on. She finally found a bed shop and got a simple mattress and some pillows and blankets. As she walked back to her house she picked up some lamps and a bucket. Temporary facilities. Hauling everything with her she made a detour to pass the whore houses again, but stopped before reaching them and decided to just go home.

It was a lonely night and she could hardly sleep so she tired herself out by making plans to pull crimes. She decided she would stop criminals in Piltover and steal their stuff. The less they have to work with the harder it will be to do crimes and the easier it will be for the police to catch them. She finally fell asleep, dreaming comfortably of XJ and without a single nightmare. It was good to be home.

_One year later. Piltover Docks._

_KABOOM-BOOM-BOOM! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CLANK!_

Three trucks exploded near the docked ship _Regress_ and men scattered away from it. As they did a young woman climbed into the fourth and sped away. In the rearview mirror she could see police lights moving to the docks and the men trying to run and jump into the drink.

VI was twelve, but she looked sixteen. She had already done enough jobs to get thirty-two criminals put in jail. She was doing better than most cops. And despite how rich she would have been, she had given her excess fortune back to the people who were robbed of it. It took a lot of maneuvering to avoid the police as she left Piltover city limits and raced out to a secluded garage in between there and Edgeover. She would return what goods were left to the dock master and sell the truck for its worth in Edgeover. She felt bad she had to destroy the other trucks, but the criminals almost got away.

Back at home she felt at ease. She had all the amenities of home as well as an outhouse far enough from her house to not smell it. She also had a self-designed generator to power her lights and radio. Her plumbing was a well she had drilled right outside all by herself, so she had running water. All the furniture she needed and plenty of tool tables with all kinds of equipment on them were scattered around her house. She made a nice place for her to call home.

Tonight she decided to go out drinking to celebrate her successful job, as usual. She went to her favorite bar, also the favorite of The Hexed Ursine who frequented it often at all hours of the day. She was also able to garner enough of their respect to earn some of her own amongst the people of Edgeover. Her payments for protection had gone up gradually, by choice, so they started to really like her. It became a place where everyone knew her name. Her fake name. Having such an alarmingly high metabolism, she only drank 151-proof grain alcohol. After a few glasses, she started to get drunk. She was a happy drunk and loved singing songs she didn't really know with the multitude of other people's cultures from around Edgeover. Unfortunately for her purse, she sobered up quickly and had to keep up her drink. Over the course of six hours she drank seventeen glasses of the grain alcohol, weirdly made in the back of the bar. The smell was incredible, so the patrons usually got drunk fast. Oddly good business practice.

At about 3:00am she decided to leave the bar. She had bought a quart of grain alcohol to go. On her way home she passed by people who were also smashed and said hello to a man that was thankful she fixed his house sink. Tonight she was brave and bold on liquor so she went to the red-light district to see what she could desire.

Calling it the red-light district is an insult to real red-light districts, but it was still a grouping of whore houses referred to as a red-light district. VI couldn't help it; something drew her here every time she was drunk. But it didn't last long, so she usually caught herself quick and went home. Tonight she was bold, the bottle of grain alcohol half full and she felt like keeping her buzz going just long enough to be brave. She went to the first house and saw nothing she liked. As she passed three more she still found nothing. On the sixth house she saw a woman who reminded her of XJ, if only because she had blue hair. The woman looked to be in her early 20's. She wore a red robe cut up to her thighs covering the torso but her arms and legs were exposed to the night air. Her feet had simple sandals, and her skin was smooth and white-tanned. She actually had long, wavy, brown hair with dark blue dye on the lower half, and her face was covered in make-up, not like a doll, just covering up blemishes to highlight her purple eyes.

'This is it,' VI thought in her head, 'I can do this. It's not weird, that other whore told me they do weird stuff.' She approached the woman and waited until she locked eyes to say, "So, um, what's the going rate?"

The woman smiled and said, "First time? That's good I love new clients. What did you want to try?"

VI gulped and looked distraught. "I, uh, wanted to have you spend the night. If that's okay?"

"Yes honey I get that part, but what do you want to do?" The whore smiled wryly.

"No, I, uh, just mean for you to come spend the night." VI was shaking.

The whore kept smiling. "You seem a little drunk. You want me to drink too?" She pointed at VI's bottle.

"Only if you like." VI choked up the words.

The whore changed to a serious tone almost instantly. "Look its fine if you want someone for the night, but the price depends on what you want to do. So you gotta tell me what were doing."

VI felt like running. "I just want to sleep and hug you while I sleep and you hug me and we just sleep."

"You look so nervous it's almost funny. But I won't laugh I promise. Does 2 gold coins work for you?" The whore said.

"Yeah, I'm V-I…Victoria. What's your name?" VI replied.

The woman smiled again. "You can name me whatever you like, but if you want you can call me Candy."

"Okay Candy, follow me." VI motioned her to follow.

They strolled along the diverse pathways as they went to VI's house. The whole time VI wanted to reach out and hold Candy's hand. At one point Candy sensed the tension and hugged up to lean on VI as they walked. She reached for VI's bottle and took a swig, spitting it out instantly as she realized its overwhelming proof.

"Shit, Victoria! What is wrong with you? This stuff is strong. Have you been drinking it straight?" Candy exclaimed.

VI was silent and still shaking as she reached her arm around Candy. "I don't get drunk easy. So it takes a lot to get me buzzed." She almost started to cry. "I needed some courage to ask someone to join me, so I bought a bottle after the bar closed. I'm sorry, if you think I'm weird or something you can take the money and-."

"Don't be silly, Victoria. It's okay. Everything's fine. I'm still here with you. I still want to sleep with you." Candy spoke calmly to VI as she ran her fingers through VI's hair. She was well practiced at keeping clients happy.

They kept walking and as VI's home came into view she felt a little more at ease. She opened the door and let Candy in. Candy's first reaction was one of wonder. The whole place looked like a repair garage, but with a girl's touch. VI was pleased by the look on Candy's face.

"You can touch it all if you like just be careful." VI finally said.

Candy looked at the top of VI's workbench in awe. "No it's fine. It's kind of late. Should we just retire?"

VI pointed her to the bed and Candy walked over and took her robe off. VI looked in envy more than anything as to how she looked fully nude. She was beautiful, far more than that whore from back in Bedlam days. VI wondered if she might look like her one day as well.

Candy sat down on the bed and motioned VI to come join her. VI wore her simple clothes, pants and a t-shirt with big old boots. She undressed down to her bra and underwear and climbed into bed with Candy, lying to her left side.

Once under the covers Candy started feeling around VI's body and it made VI uncomfortable. "Wait, I don't want to do any of that. I just want to hold you while I sleep."

Candy smiled to show she understood and embraced VI. "That's okay Victoria. It's your house. We can do whatever you like." She kissed VI on the lips and nestled in close.

VI loved that first kiss. It was her first ever and she wanted more. She reached her right hand up to hold Candy's cheek and waited until their eyes met to kiss her again. She felt like she was butchering the kiss, but Candy gave no reason to make her think that. Candy matched her energy step for step, never pushing the next action. They turned their heads constantly and kept on each others lips for what seemed like an eternity to VI. Breathing the same air with Candy was the last thing VI could remember before falling asleep. She dreamt of holding XJ and even kissing her. It didn't feel weird though it felt, right. She felt at home.

VI woke the next morning to Candy's sleeping face. She felt like kissing her, but instead pecked her check and let her stay sleeping. She got up and started some work on her next job. Some news came in her mail from sources she had set up to inform her about crime in Piltover. The truck she stole, from the criminals the day before, was mentioned as lost to the sea. She did better than she thought. She decided she would still return the goods, but without the dock master noticing.

Candy finally woke up. "Hey Victoria. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah! Best sleep I have had in a while." VI replied cheerfully. Then she pointed to two gold coins on the table. "That's yours. Two gold coins, right?"

Candy got up and grabbed them. "Yep. Hey look. If you want that on a regular basis, I would be happy to do so."

VI pondered Candy's proposal. "Yeah I will just head over whenever I feel the need. Is that ok?"

"Anytime you like." Candy said as she winked at Victoria. She got dressed and started for the door. "Hey Victoria?" She waited for VI to meet her gaze. "Don't think I'm saying this because I am a whore and it's my job, but that was really nice. Do you think it would be alright if sometimes I came over for no pay and just spent the night? I mean if your need me you gotta pay, but if I like need you then I won't charge."

VI smiled. "Yeah, that's fine. Anytime." At that Candy left and VI was alone with her thoughts, 'Someone wants to be with me. Nice.'

_Two years later. Piltover Edgeland._

VI was in a hurry. She had spent the whole night drinking and playing games with Candy. She completely forgot the job she had planned.

Candy woke up confused. "Victoria what's wrong?"

"Work! I am so late for work." VI exclaimed.

"If you hadn't asked me not to ever ask about your work, I'd ask what could be so important that you would forget to put your pants on." Candy pointed at VI's legs.

VI stopped and looked down. She was in her underwear and she grew an expression of embarrassment on her face. She quickly put her pants on and took 2 gold coins out of her pocket and placed them on the table. "Yeah thanks. Here you go. I gotta get going."

"Woah Victoria. I came to your house last night. You don't have to pay." Candy said.

"It's a down payment for tonight, then. I want you with me when I get home." VI looked at her and smiled playfully before continuing to grab her gear.

Candy got up and sat at VI's workbench fiddling with VI's stuff. "You know what Victoria? For the past few months, any night I didn't need to be with you, you've needed me. I haven't seen another client for a night in so long. I won't get specific with what I do in my job during days, but if you like there is a way I could be with you always."

VI froze, hovering over her design table facing away from Candy. "You mean leave the whore house and live here?"

"If you want, but there is a catch. And honestly…never mind forget I mentioned anything. Just go to work." Candy turned away from where VI was standing.

VI turned around and approached Candy. "What? What is it tell me."

Candy looked into VI's eyes. "Do, do you really like having me around or is it more than that?"

VI realized she meant love. VI hadn't given it much thought, but as far as anything goes she definitely couldn't imagine life anymore without Candy. And she hated whenever she was taken by some other client. Candy would tell her of the weird people she would get stuck with sometimes and it pissed VI off. "Yeah Candy. I think I love you. I mean I do love you."

Candy started to tear up and practically leaped over to embrace VI. "I love you too, but I can't!"

VI started worrying and said, "Why not? Just leave that place and come stay with me." She returned Candy's embrace with much more force to hold her tight.

"You'd, you'd have to buy me." Candy said with words she felt she would regret. Candy didn't want to burden VI, she loved her. Even asking for help like this made her feel her own feelings were disingenuous.

"What do you mean?" VI asked.

"I'm a slave Victoria. I don't have any freedom to love." Candy exclaimed.

If VI could ever remember a time she was most angry than this moment would have replaced it instantly. She pulled Candy back to look into her eyes. "You tell your boss your leaving him, and I," she almost choked on the words, she hated the fact that they needed to be said, "…am buying your freedom."

They held each other until VI had to let her go so that she could start her job. As Candy took off she gave VI a kiss for luck and left to go tell her boss the news. VI was alone with her thoughts as she finished checking her equipment. 'That fucker! I should just kill him.' She needed to focus though this next job was going to be a real tough one.

_Three hours later. Piltover-Demacian Bank._

The damage from a heist three years ago was all but unseen in the newly built structures around it. Even though the bank had lost a lot of money they still fronted half the costs on the new buildings. Of course it expanded their control because the bank now owned them.

A gang that had become as infamous as the Bedlam gang used to be, had planned a quick heist of the bank. They'd go in quiet and fake their way as armored truck security guards so they could walk out with the money unscathed. VI had decided the best way to throw a wrench in their plan was to reschedule the actual security guards to show up ten minutes before schedule.

VI waited at a café table across from the bank. It was a nice place that had been remodeled from a thrift store that was destroyed back during the "C" heist. Anything that had been done by this "C" group since then was called a "C" job by the press. Surprisingly VI couldn't get a lead as to who they were and what they ever did.

Her plan was simple to start, but knew things would escalate quickly so she came prepared. She had a pistol and some ammo, as well as a needle filled with tranquilizer. The pistol had a silencing attachment she created. It made her shots sound like someone letting out a lot of air. Even she was impressed by its silent shooting. She also had a remote detonator bomb she was planning to attach to the fake armored truck when it arrived.

The gang known as The Wrong Elements was supposed to be there at 2:10pm with half their crew, but showed up at 2:13pm instead. When they got out, all but one left to enter the building. In seven minutes the real guards would be coming and would realize what's happening fast. VI moved quickly and snuck around the truck to get behind the man who stayed behind. She wore a purse to hold the stuff she had and to make it look like she was just some shopper on a stroll. She had the pistol in one hand in her purse and the tranquilizer in the other at her side. She moved in and stuck the needle into his neck under the jaw. He dropped like a stone. Then she rigged the bomb under the truck's engine and strolled back towards the café to take her seat once more.

When the real truck arrived they stopped a ways before to call it in as the guards filed out to take cover positions, weapons drawn. The gang came out of the bank and didn't notice their guy down on the other side. The leader of the real truck yelled out to them, "Freeze, drop the bags and put your hand up!" They didn't comply as they started opening fire at the real guards and raced for cover behind their fake truck. When they were all there VI detonated the bomb and got up to leave.

_KABOOM! CLANK-CLANK!_

The truck exploded and killed the gang instantly. As VI quickly got away she looked over to see the confusion in the faces of the real guards. She knew she wouldn't be able to take anything from this job, but she was happy she had helped stop the gang.

The report the next day would tell of how the money wasn't lost in the explosion. It would talk about how the forensics team discovered it was a bomb with more concussive force than explosive force. Almost as if someone anticipated the need to not destroy the money in the process and because of this a rumor was started in the press of a vigilante at work in Piltover. The newspapers nicknamed the vigilante "The Piltover Enforcer of Justice."

_An hour later. Piltover Edgeland._

As soon as VI got home she rustled nearly half of her money, 700 gold coins, into a satchel and put her gauntlets on. She was going to the whore house Candy belonged to in full force. Along with her gauntlets she wore a suit she designed to go with it. A chest plate wrapping her entire torso down to her crotch and huge shoulder pads along with metal plates strapped with leather up and down her legs. Her boots were metal too, made to not restrict her movements. All of this was made of specially tempered steel she had designed to be light as air, but tougher than most steel. She was a fully armored machine of powerful destruction. She also had upgraded her gauntlets. She had installed controls on each glove to allow her to regulate flow. The engine no longer shot energy out the back in full force. Now it cycled back to the crystal until it overloaded and pulsed energy around her body. Without the suit the energy would fire out the back, but the suit she designed would harness the excess energy into a temporary shield. This allowed the excess power to diffuse safely. She was armored, fully charged to blast out mountains and ready for anything. So she took off towards the whore house. Candy would be free today, she swore by it.

Carrying the satchel VI took off towards the red-light district. When she got there she noticed Candy sitting outside turned away from her. "Candy, it's me Victoria. I'm here to get you." She went to turn Candy around and when she did she looked into those sweet eyes staring back at her with purple coloring around her right eye. She got hit by her boss.

VI was furious. She didn't even wait to hear what Candy said next. She stormed into the house busting doors in her way screaming at the top of her lungs. The earth could have been shattering from the loud bellows she was makings. Dozens of whores ran around screaming, they were confused and scared. VI reached a door marked "John" and assumed it was the boss. She punched through the door, turning it into kindling. When she got it she saw him in the corner cowering, but it wasn't from her. Mostly it was from Trent and his two personal thugs.

"What are you doing here?" VI started.

"Yoh, Victoria. We got word about what you wanted to do and came over to smooth the deal. But first things first I need you to calm down." Trent replied.

VI used all her strength to do so but was still angry. "I don't understand. What's happening?"

Trent started to explain, "So here's what has happened. You told Candy to tell John here she was leaving and he struck her and told her no. Then he told us and we were like 'Shit, that's bad.' So we came over to smooth things out. Here's the deal Victoria we own a big share of this and other whore houses in Edgeover so we need them to function. When John hit Candy like that it became our problem not yours. We need him alive so you have to let this go, but we have decided to be reasonable. Because you have so much of our respect we are going to let your little display just now go. Also we are giving you the rights to Candy for free. Call it _pro bono_ that we are doing this. But you have to agree not to pursue any revenge. Can you do that?"

VI wanted to kill them all and grab Candy and take her far away from everyone, but she conceded. "Okay, if I can go get her now, I will let this go."

"Sounds good. You go get her." Trent hands her some papers. "Here's her paperwork, she's all yours. We however are going to make an example out of John. I can promise you that. Take care and as always it was a pleasure." At that Trent refocused on John and VI left the whore house.

Outside Candy was crying, curled up on the ground. VI saw this and lunged down to pick her up. Gently holding her in the huge gauntlets she said, "It's ok Candy, I got you. Its okay, you're free. Please stop crying, I can't stand to see you cry, please."

Candy stopped crying to look into VI's eyes. "I love you Victoria, thank you."

VI felt tears coming up, "I love you too, Candy. You're free now and you can go anywhere you like. I hope you want to be with me. I couldn't imagine life without you. I love you so much. I will make you so happy, I know it. No one will ever hurt you again."

Candy nodded and hugged VI's neck as she sat in her huge hands. "I love you Victoria and I never want to leave you." She pulled back to wipe her tears and to wipe VI's tears for her as well. "Also, I need to be honest with you. My real name is Candice. Candy was a nickname I had before I was sold to slavery."

The word slavery almost set VI off again. If it wasn't for how bad she needed to hold Candice at the moment, she would have leveled the whole block in furious rage. In her head she thought, 'How could anyone make a slave of such a beautiful creature and still sleep at night. I will never let her ever feel so bad again, I swear it.' Then VI realized she wanted to trust Candice as much as she needed to be truthful as well. "My real name is V-I, or VI. Victoria Starke is a name I made up for my identity in Edgeover."

Candice grabbed her by both cheeks and kissed her lips. "Nice to meet you VI."

"Nice to meet you too Candice." VI puckered up again to wait for another kiss. She got it and she was happier for it. She wanted this everyday, for the rest of her life. Happiness, it was real.

Then VI carried Candice home for good. Stealing kisses all the way.


	9. Seven Funny Years of Eighteen: Part One

**Chapter 9: Seven Funny Years of Eighteen: Part One**

_Three years ago. Zaun Military Lab Compound._

Itchy eyes awake to a dimly lit and bleak den. Walls made of steel that look as if someone had torn the wallpaper down in a frenzy. The wall near the door has an active monitor with the image of a guard resting in a chair. He was in a room surrounded with monitors showing other people and places. A single bed in the middle with the owner of those eyes was surrounded by nothing but utilities. The figure rose up to sit and stare blankly at the monitor. It was a young girl; she was nine but looked thirteen. She spoke out loud as if someone could hear. "No I don't want to. – You have to, you need a shower. – Shut up I just want to sleep. – You got to take better care of yourself. – I swear to shit Fishbones if you wake me now I am gonna kill someone. – Don't say that I believe you would. – That guard there looks gullible enough to come in here. – No he's just doing his job, leave him be. – Nah, I think he should die. – They will get mad Jinx. After the last three guards you killed they put that tracking cuff on your ankle. If you kill again who knows what they will do. – It's been long enough, besides I am expected to maintain a good image. – No don't do it. – Too late. Hey guard, can you come in here?"

The guard in the monitor leaned forward and pressed a button to speak to the Jinx. "I heard all of that you crazy little bitch. You can rot for all I care. Second Lieutenant, sir."

"Sir, sir, sir, that's all they ever say. – It's your title. – Dammit Fishbones you need to really shut up or I will kill you like I did the other. – Okay, okay, but you need to still take that shower you stink. – What you don't like my smell?" Jinx forces her own face into her left armpit and breathes deep. "Aah, that smells good right? – No, that is awful."

Life in the Lab Compound had gotten better for Jinx. She was allowed to have freedom, which she abused and was confined often to her flat. It was a decent flat at that, with all the amenities included. She had a workspace room, a bathroom, a living room and a bed room. She never used the bedroom except to pick fights with herself, she always lost. The mattress had been pulled out to the living room, but she spent most nights sleeping in the bathtub. Honestly a psychologist was a mute point with this girl, she was not humanly sane. Brass covered the floor from her "collection" as she called it. She used it to slide around on her belly most of the time, but when she walked on it you would swear she moved on it better than a normal person would on a flat surface. The whole place smelled like cat piss and anything white had been painted pink with spray paint. She wouldn't admit it and she wouldn't ever realize it but VI was the one thing always on her mind. She had made another personality in her head to replace VI, but killed her when it was too painful that it wasn't the same. If someone knew the truth then Jinx would most likely be classified as manically depressed.

"I feel like destroying something. Guard, inform the general." Jinx said after crawling out of the bathtub soaking wet.

The guard came in on a speaker in the bathroom. "I'll tell him, but there isn't a mission planned for the next week or so." The guards started to call in the general and a reply came in, so he kept talking, "He says there is a mass prisoner execution you can do later today. He was going to gas them all, but you can kill 'em if you like."

"Sounds good. Keep me posted." Jinx replied. "Fishbones, are you ready to kill in your new body? – I don't think we should just kill innocent people. What did they do to deserve it? – They made the list. What else would qualify them better? – Maybe if they committed murder themselves or something. But they still deserve a real trial. – Nope, we're gonna kill them today and I'm gonna use your face to do it."

Jinx had finally understood enough basics of techmaturgy to create a powerful rocket launcher that uses compacted crystal energy to cause a massive explosion. The mixture was unstable once activated, so it had to be used no matter what each time. Every twenty or thirty shots a glitch in her design would cause the rocket to get a huge tail and be overloaded with explosive energy. It was like a very, very small atomic bomb and it decimated an area. In actuality there was no way to determine when the overloaded shot was prone to happen so it was a coin toss every time. She made a small device inside the weapon that would make notice when the shot was coming so she would know. It also put a firework charge inside of the powerful shot to make the explosion show a smiley face in the blast. With no amount of coincidence she had designed the aesthetics of the launcher to resemble a metallic shark with opening jaws to release each shot. Fishbones was now real to her when she held the weapon, even more so than normally.

Jinx spent the next few hours fighting with Fishbones on whether or not to increase the payload on each round. Obviously she wanted more, but the argument against was that too many big shots would destroy the launcher. In the end she "lost" and conceded for the reason that if the launcher was destroyed too soon her fun would end. Of course she would just do it the old fashioned way anyways with Pow-Pow.

The guard came in on the speaker saying, "Okay lieutenant, we're gonna let you out. Make your way to your private armory and then head to the yard."

"Gotchya, I will be there soon." Jinx replied.

The small wing of the compound Jinx was situated in was cleared out so it was only her, her room, her armory and a tunnel to the yard. Everyone was either killed around her or left to seek safety in other parts of the compound. No one wanted to be within reach of that crazy girl. Isolation was just a coincident.

She left her room dressed in her jumpsuit and changed to her leather belts in the armory. She grabbed Pow-Pow and Fishbones, a zapping pistol and some grappling grenades. These grenades were also her design. They would be thrown at targets and teeth on them would grab someone's ankle and explode in just a small enough way to take the limb. A crippled enemy was a dead enemy. She then headed out to the yard and palmed her way out.

As she surveyed the area she noticed Major General Travers standing on a platform with his officers. She saluted him and found her way to the proving grounds. Once in the fenced off area she signaled she was ready and the first prisoner was forced out a hole into the open.

"I'll give you to the count of – time's up!" Jinx pulled up Fishbones and launched her first ever shot at a live target. The man was obliterated all except his feet and hands. The crowd of military officials clapped and then stopped to await the next execution.

Jinx signaled another to come up and another did. When he came out he started screaming unintelligibly. "Seriously, screaming helps… not at all." Jinx said as she fired another round that again left the man's hands and feet behind in a fiery spray of red liquid. More clapping sounded in. Jinx gave the signal to let three out at once. When they came out she said, "Run idiots!" As they ran Jinx started shooting at them yelling, "Stay still! I'm trying to shoot you guys!" She hit them each after firing twelve shots randomly. The first to die dodged two shots before the third clipped his legs leaving his head intact. The second prisoner dodged three shots and the fourth hit him in the head, obliterating his torso. After two shots missed the third guy who was at this point near the gate Jinx aimed around him and the blasts slowed him down for the twelfth shot to wipe him from the face of Runeterra. Cheers came with the clapping crowd this time. Jinx signaled for four more to come out, but only one was left. As soon as he came out he started to run. Jinx threw one of her grappling grenades at him. It bounced around him and he tried to escape but it grabbed his ankle and ripped it apart in a fierce blast. He made a blood curdling scream and cradled his remaining thigh. His blood clotted quickly and his heart stopped, but Jinx blasted him anyways. The shot was an overloaded one and it leveled the area with a shockwave that knocked down the crowd of officers, but not Jinx. She just smiled to mirror the smiley face in the blast.

Jinx turned around to face the stunned crowd. "I feel like I forgot to shoot something…" She said as she leveled her launcher at the officers.

General Travers reacted first as the crowd started to search for cover. "Second Lieutenant Jinx. If you do that you know what will happen to you. I know you want more fun, but I need you to call it quits today."

As if Jinx had some respect for the man she lowered her weapon and left to reenter the compound. She put her toys away and strolled down to her room. Something disturbing made her bored and she decided to just sleep instead of her usual rant to destroy anything in her room she could. Climbing into her bathtub she fell asleep still dressed in her leather belts.

_Two years later. Guardian's Sea en route to Navori, Ionia._

A Noxian vessel approached the southern end of Ionia carrying mercenaries from Zaun. First Lieutenant Jinx was amongst them polishing Pow-Pow on the bow, deck-side. Time had changed her age and rank. Looking like a fifteen year old, Jinx was now eleven and had been promoted to First Lieutenant. She was fully stocked in gear and ready to kill hundreds. Her mission was simple. Take the beach under the cover of night. Kill the stragglers that get away from fights with Noxian soldiers. Mostly she was ordered to be clean up. It was ordered that her presence must remain unknown. She was to kill anyone who saw her face and as a special order from Travers she was to kill any of her subordinates that make it out alive. She would be returning alone. She had a team of seven stupid grunts. Hopefully for their sake, they would die on the beach, because Jinx wanted to play awhile. The cover story dictated that no traces are to be left of Zaun military presence. This was not disclosed to either her men or the forces of Noxus. She would have to destroy the bodies, but she didn't mind. As the beach came into view all the other boats lit up signal torches and the boat lurched forward hard to let the wind carry it at ramming speed. Jinx got on the front tip of the bow, she wanted to be launched into the shore and strike a round from Fishbones into the closest tower.

One of her men came forward to warn her, "Sir, I don't think you should stand there."

She whirled around and unloaded a shot from her zapping pistol in his face. She looked at the others and said, "I give the orders. Understood?"

They all nodded and replied together, "Sir, yes sir!"

"Good the first order is to rush in behind me firing in wide arcs at the panicking people." Jinx stated.

The zapped soldier rose slowly, breathing deeply. He made it clear he wasn't going to retaliate by how he refused to lock eyes with Jinx. "Sorry, sir." He then took up post with the others.

Her soldiers carried automatic rifles, grappling grenades, and shoot-and-drop rocket launchers, as well as side arms. They wore body armor that was designed not to restrain complex movements like in melee combat, for that they had knives. Their clothes disguised them as Noxians. Unbeknown to Jinx they also were carrying special containers of an incredibly acidic material. They were ordered to use it on large populations of Ionians, and if necessary on Jinx if and when she got out of control. There was no real kind of loyalty in Zaun.

The boat breached the beachhead and Jinx was launched into the air as she fired the first round at the tower closest to her. Then she proceeded to charge with Pow-Pow firing at the people running out of it as her soldiers brought up the rear. They pushed up past the tower in minutes and had to wait for the Noxians to realize they had made a gap and their forces should come over to fill it in. They poured in cheering thanks to Zaun and it annoyed Jinx they said it so loudly. The Ionians were not supposed to know that Zaun was there, so the Noxian officers quickly shut them up to refocus. She followed behind the division in front of her, killing the runners as her men did the same.

She was getting bored in the fight because she wasn't directly inside it. She took pot-shots with her zapping pistols to save Noxian soldiers who had made openings to the Ionian soldiers. She probably saved 40 men in that first fight. She was told that the Noxian numbers needed to stay high long into the fighting, so she was basically ordered to save them whenever possible. Her zaps were disabling tough Ionians fighters making it easier for the Noxians to take them out. Some of them noticed her doing so and came to stop her. Big mistake. She tore through them with Pow-Pow and finished off the rest with Fishbones who, on the tenth shot, fired an overloaded round that leveled the fighting soldiers on both sides. Seeing this she ordered the Noxians to stay down as she rained fire from Pow-Pow at the rising Ionians. Again cheers came in from the Noxians as they pushed their lines forward.

Three of her men were dead at this point, 'Idiots.' She thought. She made sure each body of her downed men was obliterated by Fishbones. The Noxians had pushed 3 kilometers inwards from the shoreline by now. Jinx's division was leading a V-shaped push into Ionia that was going too far too fast. She told the Noxian officers and they argued with her that they don't have the forces to wait for the others to come forward. Seeing their point she told them to hold back while she and her team gave some cover. Moving to the front she fixated her men to target any ranged attackers while she poured rounds into an oncoming wave of Ionians. She fired Pow-Pow wildly into the crowd as she put shot after shot from Fishbones into the denser groupings. Her intent was to stir confusion. She wasn't taking hits from them because she moved like a flash. Almost as if the death of those around her was fueling her speed, she kept getting faster laughing the whole time. The bluish blur was blasting two kinds of fire at the confused and panicking Ionians. None of them could get a lock on her and they were too afraid to get too close. In the end the remaining soldiers from the wave took cover to regroup as Jinx noticed she needed to stop and reload. She stopped firing when an overloaded shot let out and went to the Noxian forces calling her men back, but they were all dead so she took care of their bodies and retreated to the line of Noxian officers. Before doing so Jinx passed one of her downed men to destroy the body but noticed something on his belt. It looked weird but was definitely a new kind of grenade in her eyes so she took it and blew up the corpse.

The Noxian forces started to move out feeling better now that the other lines were keeping pace and Jinx continued her orders to safeguard them and kill runners. For hours the fight went on and when the sun was high in the sky the shoreline was secured and the Ionians were in full retreat. Navori would soon be theirs. Reports from Galrin and Shon-Xan were coming in that victory had been achieved. Jinx didn't relax though she charged the retreating forces. Approaching a fleeing crowd of archers she stopped running but kept shooting so she could pull out the fancy grenade she found. She set the timer and hurled it at a thick crowd of them 15 meters away. The grenade exploded with green ooze that covered the Ionian's bodies. At first Jinx was disappointed by the grenade so she moved in to keep firing before stopping to see what was happening to them. The Ionians started to scream as their bodies were melted away and Jinx realized it was acid. In her head she thought. 'That ruins all the fun for me.' The ground was soaked in the stuff and it wasn't dissipating so she decided not to venture in. The rest of the enemy was too far off to continue and Jinx was all used up on ammunition. Depressed she left to thank the officers and went to get on one of the leaving ships.

As the beach of Novari started to disappear she thought of VI without realizing it and said aloud, "Are you proud of me?"

_A week later. Zaun Military Lab Compound._

Major General Travers and Dr. Parson were in the conference room. Since the last time Mr. Parson saw Jinx he had received his Doctorate in Human Biology. Dr. Parson was his new title. Jinx sat at the far end of the table still dressed in leather belts.

Dr. Parson started, "Welcome home Jinx. Did you enjoy the trip?"

"Yeah, it was a blast, hehehe!" She replied cheerfully.

"That's good." Dr. Parson continued, "How many did you kill?"

Jinx pondered a moment and said, "Maybe two-hundred."

Dr. Parson looked pleased. "Good, now we have some news for you. We have decided, or more importantly General Travers here has decided to allow you visitors."

"Ooo, like a friend my own age?" Jinx asked.

"Well no not as young as you, just barely in their twenties. We have already found a few. You can choose what you'd like." Dr. Parson slid a dossier over to her with six people's profiles in them, all girls. Three of them had pink hair, two had blue and pink highlights and one had brown hair.

She thought for awhile on it in her head, 'I could get a VI in real life, but then the White-coats would see that and think I have a weakness. They can never know I want VI back alive.' She pulled out the brunette and gleefully said, "This one would be perfect." The one she picked was twenty-two and looked really young. She was dressed in a blue jumpsuit so besides her smooth white skin Jinx couldn't make out her features. She did however notice the girl's blue eyes, wide hips and large breasts. She would be perfect to fool them because she looked nothing like VI. She would secretly call her VI anyways. Maybe use a name to hide it, like AliVIa.

"Good." Dr. Parson continued as The General sat in perfect silence paying no attention to Jinx at all. "You wait in your room and we will send her to you. Would you like to name her?"

Jinx replied almost too quickly, "AliVIa, yeah, AliVIa is fine."

Dr. Parson said, "Okay, then. Go wait in your room."

Jinx left them alone to go to her room and wait impatiently for AliVIa. The General spoke first. "So you asked me to hold my tongue and just let you do whatever. Now you need to tell me why you just did all that? I never allowed for her to have a visitor or to name her and I assume own her. Spill it."

Dr. Parson started calmly, "That was a test for Jinx. We knew she still had some residual feelings for her original test partner number six. I knew if I gave her those choices she would go out of her way to pick the one that looked almost nothing like number six. This is where I give full disclosure of what we are trying to do. Back when they were young they thought they were unwatched in their bath time. They made a language that we have only recently translated and started to have family feelings towards one another. In time I am sure it would have led to romance. They also named each other, number six was VI and number eighteen or Jinx was XVIIJ or XJ for short. Roman numerals on their ID tags were the inspiration for this. In the end VI sacrificed herself for Jinx to continue, proving she was the weaker of the two."

Travers was in shock but asked regardless, "So what does that mean now?"

Dr. Parson smiled and continued, "We have seen proof of this residual feeling. Back during the final preliminaries we saw the footage of Jinx killing those kids. On the last boy she etched her name into his face." Dr. Parson pulled up the incident on a monitor facing Travers. "Look closely as she starts. She put VI on his face and stopped. Then she looked at the camera and noticed her mistake so she finished by etching her own name around it. We have also witnessed her interactions with a distinct personality she created for VI, but then killed her weeks later for a reason we can't be sure of yet. We hope that sending that girl in their will shed some light on the situation in her head."

General Travers rubbed his chin and looked up at Dr. Parson saying, "You lab guys really know your stuff. Okay, keep me posted. You have my go ahead."

"I am delighted to hear that General." Dr. Parson responded.

_An hour later. In a small cell in the Holding Wing of the Zaun Military Lab Compound._

'Why am I here? I didn't do anything to anyone. I mean yeah, sure, prostitution is looked down on, but it's not illegal in Zaun. I should have stayed in Edgeover. I was kinda safe there. Maybe if I pleaded John would have taken me back. No. No. He was mad I wouldn't do that incredibly obese client. Why am I here?' These are the lonely thoughts of a young woman named Brittney. She was a full figured woman with brown hair and she was awaiting something in this small cell without a toilet. It was pitch-black dark, most likely an isolation cell.

The door to the cell opened with a rush of light and three armed guards with shaded helmets came in and grabbed her. They forced her out of the cell and ordered her silence and compliance as she started to ask why they were doing this to her. Through many hallways and large doors they led her to a small door with writing on it, 'Jinx' without anything else. When the door opened they pushed her in alone.

She was terrified as she looked around the room. It was dark and bleak and the whole place smelled rank with something she couldn't place. A girl, no older than fifteen came out of a bedroom holding a can of pink spray paint. Brittney looked around and noticed cameras with pink paint on the lenses. She was alone with the girl and it frightened her. She noticed the look on this girls face. It was a weird smile that seemed to look into her soul. "Who, who are you?" She asked.

"Jinx," the girl replied, "and you are now AliVIa. Got it?"

Brittney was used to getting named by clients, but to her there was no way this girl was a client. "Sure, I am Alivia."

Jinx cut her off immediately, "No! It's AliVIa. Say it right."

Brittney said it back putting emphasis on the V and the I. "AliVIa. Got it."

Jinx walked up to Brittney and spray painted her knew name on her jumpsuit. Brittney coughed from the fumes and Jinx grabbed her by the throat. "Don't be like that. It's your new name." Jinx's grip wasn't hard, so Brittney was able to stop coughing.

When Jinx released her and started to walk away, Brittney started, "So, Jinx. What would you like to do?"

Jinx spun around and smiled. "Are those real?" She pointed at Brittney's chest.

"Yeah, why?" Brittney responded.

Jinx kept smiling and sat down on her mattress. "Show me."

Brittney was confused. 'She wants to see my tits? Whatever.' Brittney unzipped the jumpsuit half way and pulled her top back to reveal her breasts. "You like?" She asked. 'Why did I just ask a little girl that question? I need to break my normal routine for this.'

"Yeah, now bounce 'em." Jinx responded.

'What is wrong with this girl? Who the fuck is she?' Brittney thought as she hopped up and down.

Jinx started giggling uncontrollably as she fell over cradling her gut. It made Brittney even more uncomfortable. Then Jinx said, "Okay haha okay, that's enough put those things away." Brittney complied and started to zip back up. "No leave 'em out I like 'em."

Brittney decided to just ask. "Okay what is all this?"

A voice came in on the speaker that Brittney could tell Jinx knew very well. "To you AliVIa she may appear to be a little girl, but she has actually matured years ago. Relatively she is more grown up than you. Not physically, but mentally."

"Shut up Dr. Parson or I'll kill you all. Leave us alone. Also I thought I got all the cameras?" Jinx started to complain.

There was no reply. Brittney felt like that's all they wanted to say.

"Okay so this isn't as weird as I thought, but it still feels weird." Brittney said aloud.

As if her words were a thorn in Jinx's side she got up and said. "I don't like what you're saying. Knock it off."

Brittney looked into evil angry eyes and got the message. "Yeah, sorry. This is fun. Really it is."

Jinx's expression changed instantly and she smiled softly. She left Brittney alone and went over to the bathroom's bathtub and started the bathwater. She waited for the water to reach a good temperature and got undressed. She peered around the corner and said, "Come on." Then she waved Brittney to come over. Brittney complied and when she came in Jinx was nude in the tub. "Get in." Jinx ordered. So Brittney undressed and climbed in. Jinx took notice of her beauty, 'Pretty. Why can't I grow tits?'

Brittney sat in the water looking confused. "So you just wanted to take a bath?"

"No. I needed to get you away from their microphones so I can show you the secret language." Jinx smiled as she held out her hands and hugged Brittney. She waited until Brittney returned the hug before letting her go. 'Man, those things are soft.' She thought. "Okay here we go. This is how you say 'hi.'" She lightly slapped her thigh with her hand to show the meaning for "hi" to Brittney. Brittney followed her example in the same motion. "Good you're doing great so far."

Jinx continued to teach and re-teach everything she could remember from the language her and VI made. Oddly, enough she was patient with Brittney and when she was all done a little time later Brittney knew enough to hold a small talk kind of conversation. Then something went wrong.

Jinx stopped doing anything and stared at Brittney. Brittney used her right foot to tap the side of the bathtub three times fast, 'What is happening?' She met Jinx's eyes and waited for a response.

"You aren't VI." Jinx said bluntly.

Brittney didn't know how to respond. "I am if you want me to be."

Jinx leaned into Brittney to grip her neck with both hands. "You aren't VI. She was stronger than me. I couldn't do this to VI!"

Brittney could feel herself losing conscious as she struggle to get Jinx's grip loose. She started to really panic and hit Jinx in the head with her fist really hard, but was slightly amazed it did nothing to stop her.

"You aren't VI!" Jinx said as she closed her grip completely around Brittney's throat.

The last thing Brittney saw was Jinx staring fiercely at her. Then she felt a moment of bliss and fell deep into the black.

_Present. Zaun Military Lab Compound. Major General Travers office._

A Major from Zaun Military Intelligence Department (ZMID) came up to General Travers office and said, "Sir, permission to enter?"

General Travers was looking over some budget concerns from the Zaun Military committees; he sighed and said, "Granted, make it quick Jenson, my patience is thin today."

"Sir, this will take awhile I'm afraid." Jenson said as he entered to face the general standing.

Again Travers sighed and said, "Okay Major, you have my full attention." He set the papers down and focused on Jenson.

Jenson started in true military discipline, "Sir, our informants from Piltover Edgeland have brought some odd information to our attention." He paused to make sure that Travers was still focused, then continued, "They seem to have found a young woman with particular attributes. From what they tell us, our records indicate the woman is a product of Project Erebus."

Travers was in total shock, "Now Jenson, you understand that project is in remission until the first test subject can be proven suitable for a mass production right? Because only one of sixty-four subjects was able to pass and we have not started any works on a second generation. You have to be mistaken."

"I understand your doubts, sir, but we have spent the last two days working to confirm the information. Take a look for yourself." Jenson hands Travers the files.

Travers looks them over, then he opens a line on his intercom, "Attention all personnel, this is Major General Travers. If someone sees Dr. Parson send him to my office immediately. That is all."

The two of them wait ten minutes for him to show. Dr. Parson came in flustered. "Sir, I have no time for whatever this is."

"What is making you so hostile, Dr. Parson?" Travers says bluntly.

Dr. Parson breathed deep and replied, "The whore we sent into Jinx's room. Jinx just choked her to death. We are trying to resuscitate her at the moment. She is stabilizing and dying over and over. We fear she may not come back completely, but brain and nerve function is still intact. Now what is the meaning of all this?"

Travers hands him the files from ZMID. "Take a look."

Dr. Parson spends a minute studying them and then smiles and looks at Travers. "This is wonderful!"

"How is this wonderful?" Travers asks.

"Well," Dr. Parson started, "when we were deciding between pushing Jinx or VI forward in the project, VI committed suicide, in a basic sense, to save Jinx. You know this already. Moving on. We didn't kill her we just let her get "flushed" but we later learned that because we didn't tell the Flush Department a body was in the flush they did a quick one and we were worried she may have lived. Because neither Mr. Green nor I were fired, we assumed she died or maybe left Zaun. It seems she has lived and started to live out on her own. If the information is correct, then she is doing better than we expected. Her training and genetically manipulated structure is probably paying off well for her. The splendid part is that now we have a control to our experiments in taming Jinx. Bear with me here. If we can study VI as she is now we can use that to control Jinx. All we need to do is make a copy of VI, physically and mentally. With VI alive we can achieve that."

"I see where your headed here, but who will be our VI?" Travers asked.

Dr. Parson chuckled, "That stupid whore of course."

_An hour later. Zaun Military Lab Infirmary._

Brittney woke in a rush of pain. She was zapped to life by an electric-stimulator meant to massage her heart. She gasped for air as she starred into a bright light above her. 'Do I follow the light?' She thought.

She looked to her right to see a man in a lab coat standing over her. The man started to prod and poke her checking her reaction to stimuli and the condition she was in. Then he turned to another man in a plain white coat and said, "She will be fine, but I would wait until the bruises on her neck heal before you get her up and moving again."

The man approached her bedside and brushed the doctor away. "Hello, Brittney, or better yet AliVIa. How are you feeling? No wait don't answer. I am sure your throat would strain to speak and all we need you to do now is listen and rest." The man continued with a smiling face. "You've had a nasty run in with Jinx's more maniacal side. She is a cold blooded killer as I am sure you could tell. We know now that anything short of real isn't going to cut it for her. Now, that being said let us discuss you." The man paused and then said, "Oh where are my manners? My name is Clarence Parson. You may call me Dr. Parson. Now, getting back to you. We have your record here." Dr. Parson held up a folder with her photo on it. "An Edgeover whore that defected from that profession to seek it just the same in Zaun. You followed a few friends who decided to leave with you. You all went your separate ways once you arrived. We have dispatched your friends already and we arrested you on grounds to conspire against Zaun. It was a fake charge. We killed dozens of whores in search of some that might suit our needs. But it seems now that a decent friend for Jinx isn't enough to replace her 'one true love.' Now we have a proposal for you to consider. On the one hand we kill you painlessly and feed your corpse to the dogs or option two, and I believe you may like this one, or not. We change your features through plastic surgery to resemble her 'true love' and teach you to play the part. I will give you time to consider. Feel free to live in comfort. Anything you need or want just ask and you shall get it. A week from now we will need a decision. I hope you choose the latter. Thank you for your time. Remember, one week." At that he got up to leave her alone on the table.

Brittney started to try and speak, but it came out in wheezes. She flailed her arms to get Dr. Parson's attention. He turned to look as she mouthed, 'Yes.'

"Splendid, we will begin in a week's time. Now please rest, VI." Dr. Parson said with a wide smile.

_One year later. Zaun Military Lab Compound. Jinx's Room._

Jinx was on her mattress in a heated discussion with Fishbones. He was trying to convince her now to tattoo VI on her chest. The argument, which Jinx was bound to lose, spoke against her because it would be permanent and she couldn't remove it later. The big thing Fishbones was arguing was that if she ever wanted to remove it she might forget she was mortal and try to rip her own skin off. Suddenly her room door opened and a figure entered with cuffed hands and a bagged head. It was a young woman; she was dressed in some Piltover attire.

Jinx approached the woman saying, "Who are you and why are you here?"

The woman giggled, "Now there's a familiar voice. Take the bag off and see little sister."

Jinx starred at the woman with a stunned expression and then proceeded to remove the bag. When she saw her face she back stepped a meter or two. "No fucking way." She let out.

"Yeah XJ it's me. Glad to see you're alive." The woman said. The woman looked to be eighteen. She had blue eyes and pink hair with magenta sideburns. She had a smile that made Jinx quiver.

"You can't be her. She's dead." Jinx stuttered to say.

The woman spoke plainly, "No, I'm alive XJ. And if it wasn't for those White-coats I'd be blowing this place to ashes by now."

"V-I, how?" Jinx continued to stutter.

"How I got here or how I am still alive?" VI said.

Jinx blurted the word out, "Both."

"Well they didn't kill me when I got 'flushed' but after it happened I kind of wished they had. Those pipes suck. As to how I got here? I came back for revenge to kill them all. I assumed that they washed you out of their project, because you couldn't understand techmaturgy. I am glad to see you made it through." VI smiled.

Before each of VI's sentences Jinx swore she could hear a buzzing, but she was too distracted to investigate the noise. Inside Brittney's right ear, attached to her auditory ossicle surgically was a transceiver that broadcasted messages from Dr. Parson. He was telling her what to say and how to say it, secretly. This was the final product of plastic surgery and advanced character impersonation training that Brittney had received over the last year. Brittney was now VI Version 2.

"If that's really you then," Jinx tapped her right foot three times fast, 'What is happening?'

"Our special language? You remember it?" VI-V2 said as she thudded her left foot, tapped it and then thudded it again, 'I don't know.' "Really I don't."

Jinx fell into VI-V2 to embrace her. "Oh shit VI, I am so glad to see you again. I love you."

VI-V2 replied, "I love you too XJ, so much."


	10. Seven Defining Years of Caitlyn:Part One

**Chapter 10: Seven Defining Years of Caitlyn: Part One**

_One week after the heist of The Taric Find Mine. Piltover's Sherriff Department. Caitlyn's Office._

Alexander walked into Caitlyn's office to find her half-huddled in a chair in the far corner. Before they had left for the mine to track-down The Bedlam Gang, Alexander had informed the janitorial staff to change the name on the window pane of the sheriff's office. So now the name on the door Alexander just closed behind him read, "**SHERRIFF CAITLYN**" replacing Roy's name with hers.

Caitlyn sat in her chair with both arms hugged under her legs. She had her head resting on the wall and she was looking directly at her rifle as it was propped up against a bookcase. On the top of the bookcase sat her top-hat. She was sickly pale and her eyes were bloodshot with visible red rings around them. Since the brutal death of Deputy Artson and the other deputies in Omega squad, Caitlyn had spent a lot of alone time crying. To Alexander it seems apparent she had run out of tears or it's causing too much pain to cry. Alexander knew she was stronger than this, but he didn't know how to show her. He wanted to reach out and hold her, but instead settled on doing her paperwork to ease her stress.

Alexander took a seat in the guest chair at her desk to look over her affairs. A huge stack of files were in the "IN" pile and nothing was in the "OUT" pile. The only things on her desk were a lamp and a typewriter with a letter, recently made, sticking out of it. Roy was an old-fashioned kind of guy, but a lot of Piltovians are. The crossover from old ways to the new use of techmaturgy has reshaped Piltover in almost every aspect. Blood, sweat and tears were the ways of the past. Now it's just sweat and tears.

Without asking Caitlyn or checking the footnote to confirm it was complete, Alexander tore it off. It was a letter Caitlyn had made for the Piltover Police Commissioner, Alexander's father, Robert Stone Farthen. 'Why the hell would you write a letter to him?' Alexander thought as he glanced over to Caitlyn, still looking ghastly.

The letter read:

"_Commissioner Farthen,_

_ I regret to inform you of my decision to resign my post as Sherriff and dissolve the Sheriff's Department altogether. This decision comes after a week of deep consideration for the welfare of the citizens of Piltover. I feel that the Sheriff's Department no longer serves the purposes and needs of this new age for Piltover. I want to commend the men and woman in my department on their excellent service and I would request you allow all those who feel obligated to transfer into the Police Department, to do so. Thank you and may peace reign in Piltover. _

_Sincerely,"_

Caitlyn had not added the typed signature yet. Alexander set the paper down on the table and looked at Caitlyn. She must have known he was reading it because she turned and leveled her gaze to meet his. Caitlyn spoke first, "Its over."

Rage instantly consumed Alexander, but he was still clear-headed enough to drive it in a correct direction. He sprang from his chair and used his left hand to grab and drag the desk from between where he sat and where Caitlyn was. With his right hand he grabbed her left shoulder and pulled her up. Using both hands on each shoulder Alexander pinned Caitlyn to the far wall before screaming, "Fucking shit Caitlyn! This is how you deal with your life? Running away! What the fuck happened to all your strength?"

"Let it go Alex, its over. We can't keep up anymore." Caitlyn responded with tears streaming down her face. "Times have changed. The police have far better manpower and much greater organization than we do. Besides, you should be happy. This will give you time to make me fall in love with you, right?"

If it can be explained which is the most severe between the words rage and fury, than that one is where Alexander had just been pushed into. "Don't bullshit me Caitlyn!" Her eyes widened and her face showed confusion and horror. "That's not fair! Don't bullshit me! I know you don't love me and you don't want to. That doesn't mean I don't know you have love for me as a friend, but don't act like there's a shot. Don't betray me like that! We've all seen what you have more interest in. We know, yeah we know, but we don't care Caitlyn. So don't bullshit me!"

Caitlyn reached her hands up as far as she could, being held against the wall, to rest them on Alexander's chest. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry." She sobbed a bit as she ducked her head down low.

Alexander continued to hold her firmly against the wall. "Look at me Caitlyn. " He shook her. "Look at me!" He waited for her to look into his eyes. "Do you remember my induction into the Sherriff's Department?"

Caitlyn summoned strength to respond, "Yeah you got in right before you turned 23, what of it?"

Alexander continued, "When I was put in a room with Roy and he asked me personal questions, I knew you had sneaked your way into the room prior, to listen in. I found out later why, that Wallace wanted to hear, firsthand, what my responses were. You tried to breathe quietly in the locker behind where I sat. I could hear your breathe. The constant and steady noise of how you breathe when you are calm is one of the things that still drive me crazy for you today." Hearing that made Caitlyn smile a bit, even though she didn't want to. Alexander kept going, "Roy said he didn't know you were there, but no one believed him. Roy asked me the normal questions for getting the job before he asked me the questions you came into Roy's Office to listen to. Roy asked me why I opted to join the Sherriff's Department over the Police Department with my father. Do you remember what I told him?"

As if remembering the words he had said were a cure to her disease, the color in her face returned and her eyes opened wide and sparkled brilliantly. "You said, 'Regardless of what my father claims, I know that the Police Department works for the City of Piltover and that the Sherriff's Department is the only force that truly works for the People of Piltover.'"

Alexander smiled and laughed, "When you let that get to the press to make the Sherriff's Department look good, my father had to be held back by ten of his men to not strangle me. He-he."

Caitlyn joined his laughter, and as she cheered up he relaxed his hold more and more. They finally lost control of their laughter and fell to the ground holding each other and giggling in a silly manner. Caitlyn could hardly stop laughing to get a word in, "I, ha-ha, I, ha-ha, Roy sat me down in this office, ha-ha, in that chair," she pointed at the chair Alexander had been previously sitting in, "and told me, ha-ha, in the most serious tone he could." Alexander paused his laughter to hear this part clearly, "I am so proud of you. Ha-ha-ha-ha." A new wave of laughter roared in as the two rolled around on the floor laughing hysterically. Faces crunched, wheezing and pausing breathes followed by heaving giggles that could be heard from outside the office, were a constant. So much so that it drew the attention of Zachary.

Zachary strolled into the office and looked at them acting silly as he casually asked, "What did I miss?"

Caitlyn stopped laughing to look up at Zachary and said, "Nothing too big. I have just decided that we are going to drastically increase our numbers, starting now."

_One year later. Piltover's Sherriff Department. Caitlyn's Office._

"The new recruits are ready to graduate and become inducted into the service." Alexander said to Caitlyn, standing at attention in her doorway.

"Okay, okay, I get it, you want to make it look cute that I asked you guys to act more serious and formal, but you don't have to overdo it." Caitlyn responded from her desk, as she was muscle-memory signing paperwork. She had a full uniform on that she had picked out for the Sherriff's Department, tan shirts and brown pants. Separate colors from the police's royal blue shirts and pants. She wanted to keep it simple, but also gave out the order that those above a certain pay grade can be informal on duty. It was all made awkward by how she looked so formal but still had that huge top-hat. She was starting to give a better standard of order to the department and it made her feel confident that no matter the hurdle, they would all be able to rise to the challenge. "You especially don't need to be acting so fake for these new recruits. I need you to take this seriously."

Alexander gave a face that implied 'yikes.' "Caitlyn? When was the last time you went out?"

"What? I go out. Who said I didn't?" Caitlyn replied in a hurried tone, looking up to face Alexander.

"That wasn't my question?"

Caitlyn pondered a moment and then said, "Just last, uh, week?"

Alexander raised his eyebrows. "Are you asking me if you did? Because I couldn't know. And even if I did, why would I have asked you in the first place?"

The literal absurdity of her own words started to make sense. "Okay, so I don't get out much. What of it?"

Alexander responded as nicely as he could, "Caitlyn, your twenty-one now. You don't have to look for the pick of the litter in the shady bars anymore. You can drink at the better places that serve 21 and up, now."

"Okay, you make it sound so weird when you say 'pick of the litter' so please don't" Caitlyn said in a tense manner.

Alexander kept going, "Well to ninety percent of Piltovians it is weird, but there are two places to drink in all of the city-state that don't think it's weird at all. They require that you are a certain age, which you are, and they offer an atmosphere of comfort the city neglects to give their most favorite celebrity. So it doesn't hurt the cause of the department for the most important member to allocate two hours or more each month to taking the risk of going there and finding something pleasurable."

Caitlyn threw her pen at Alexander, but he dodged it. "Shut up!"

"Whoa, Caitlyn, Whoa, I am on your side. I mean come on I'm a guy here. The thought of two girls together makes me feel good too." Alexander was pushing the limits with his jibe but kept going as Caitlyn's cheeks grew red and her breathe deepened. "Mmhmm, two or more girls getting down and dirty, damn I wish they let my kind in those places. I am so jealous of you." He put on a big smile.

Caitlyn looked amused, but she was still pissed. "You are a jerk. Now go get those recruits in line before I make you rejoin the force with them. And pick up my pen, now."

Alexander grabbed it up from the hallway floor and handed it to Caitlyn. "So, will you take me sometime?"

As he bolted from the room Caitlyn faked like she was going to throw her pen again and said, "Get out!" In her head she thought, 'Why haven't I been down there yet.' Then she finished her paperwork and left for the Grand Hall to induct the new recruits.

The ceremony was well rehearsed. She had already approved them to be deputies and all twelve had prepared their induction oaths well enough to recite them by memory. Their families were there to see them graduate. Ten were male and two were female, all between the ages of 18 to 25. This brought the department up to 114 deputies, 127 total members. Besides Caitlyn, other positions in the staff were considered members. Cooks, secretaries, clerks, and janitors made up the other 13 members. All were there to applaud the new deputies. The department was growing.

After the festivities ended and the partying began Caitlyn retreated to her office, followed quickly by Alexander. "Don't even think about sitting down!" Alexander almost screamed as Caitlyn pulled out her desk chair. "Look I will handle all this, if it's so important. You go out. Drink. Dance. Live. Even love for shit's sake. Okay?"

Caitlyn started to stutter, "But… what if? I don't know. What if, what if?" She held up her hands in a shrug and looked at Alexander hoping for an easy answer.

There never is an easy answer. So Alexander responded in a supportive and caring tone, "The only 'what if' you need to consider is, 'What if I sat down and talked with that girl?' Everything else will be a mystery, but at least in that first moment you at least tried. Do you have any idea how nervous you made me feel when I first asked you out? Just suck it up and try it, Caitlyn, try it. And you know, show a little skin too?" At that he smiled wide.

Caitlyn laughed a little realizing he was trying to put her at ease. "I'll wear the red dress my mom got me."

"Oh Caitlyn. Be real with yourself. You shouldn't shoot to impress. Wear the purple one, you like it more." Alexander said in a cheery tone.

Caitlyn smiled and started to get her things to leave. "I will Alex. Thanks."

After spending an eternity, from a guy's perspective, getting ready, Caitlyn made her way to _Jill's Hill_ for cocktails and fun. She didn't really know what to expect, but hoped that everything would just be fine. She wore a purple strapless dress that was cut up to her thighs. The skirt of the dress was tight around her legs. She had completely shaved her legs and arms smooth. On her feet were purple pumps. Her make-up was minimal because she hoped someone would see her for real, and like her for it. She also decided not to wear her top-hat tonight, she just ironed her long, silky brown hair to make it curly. She also sported a small purple purse. Purple is her favorite color, if it wasn't obvious already. Upon arrival she wasn't checked for ID. The large man outside noticed her, as did many others, as she came to the door. He let her walk right inside. A feeling of stupidity gripped her as she realized her fame could have gotten her inside the bar before she had turned 21. It wasn't an exclusive bar, but it had standards for appearance sake. The music gave an atmosphere of a rave, but the scene looked like a casual meet and greet, needless to say, it left Caitlyn perplexed completely. When she got in she was bombarded with staring eyes that were either confused or just curious. They all knew who she was, but most weren't expecting to see her at a bar exclusively made for women. As she made her way, embarrassed, to the counter in the back she took notice of all the beautiful and sparkling dresses each woman was wearing. Especially the dress of a blonde woman surrounded by many friends who wore dresses that seemed to compliment hers.

She was so pretty in Caitlyn's eyes. The blonde looked at least over twenty-five. In her head she thought, 'Okay. This is it. I'll get two drinks, walk over, and offer her one. And that's it. Then just be normal. Have fun. Be normal. Have fun. Okay.' She turned to face the bartender. "Um, Miss? Can I get two Demacian Fruit-cups, please?" The drink she asked for two of was a mixture of one part gin, two parts fruit juice, and one part sweet vermouth. After waiting only a minute, while watching the skill of the lady mixing her drinks, she paid and was ready to go.

This was it. She would go for it. You only live once and she wanted to make a shot at living well. She strolled over to the pretty blonde, held out both drinks and said, "Hey, there? Can I offer you a drink? I'm Caitlyn. What's y-."

"Okay, woah, uh… that's real cute sweetie but, I know who you are and quiet honestly you are way too butch for me. I mean you hardly look like you were meant to wear that dress, literally. Thanks for the drinks though." The blonde said as she grabbed both drinks from Caitlyn and turned back around to giggle with her friends, handing off one drink to the girl on her left. She must have known Caitlyn was still standing there because she turned around and said, "Uh, bye," as she waved a hand out to try and shoo Caitlyn away.

As soon as the blonde woman said "butch" Caitlyn was lost in panic. She could no longer hear the music and her face was strained in an expression of despair. She wanted to cry. In her head she thought, 'Why?' When the blonde turned around and shooed her away, Caitlyn bolted for the restroom trying her hardest not to swell up. Once inside she went up to a mirror and dropped her purse in the sink. With both hands open she clenched her mouth to keep from sobbing. Her eyes were shut tight and she rocked back and forth a little. She wanted to breakdown. 'Why? I just wanted to show you a good time. You didn't even give me a chance. Why?'

She didn't care or notice, but she was alone in the restroom. As she was about to cry for real, a woman came in and she quickly found herself enough composure to not breakdown in front of a stranger. She turned to leave and in her head, leave the bar altogether. As she did the woman entering said, "Hey? I saw what happened. I'm sorry."

Caitlyn looked up into the woman's blue eyes to notice she was more of a girl than a woman and that she had dark red hair. "No, no, it's fine. I was just leaving and-."

"Hey you don't have to go anywhere. Don't let that bitch spoil your fun." The red-headed woman said.

Hearing the word "bitch" made Caitlyn giggle, but in her weakened state it made her let out some tears and some sobs. "I'm sorry." Caitlyn leaned against the sink counter and buried her head into her hands, crying.

The red-headed woman walked over and embraced Caitlyn in a hug to comfort her. "No, no, it's not your fault. I know that bitch. She's mean to everyone. Believes her shit don't stink and all that. You're fine. You're fine." She pushed back from Caitlyn, holding her still so that Caitlyn could look up from her hands to lock eyes with the woman. "She's just jealous she isn't the center of attention tonight. It's not your fault you were attracted to the worst woman on Runeterra. Everyone is visually. But do you know who the most attractive woman of the night is?" Caitlyn shook her head. "You, silly. It's why I am in here trying to get you before anyone else gets a chance."

Caitlyn started to giggle. "Thank you so much, but you're so much prettier than I am." Caitlyn wasn't kidding. This young woman was filled out at every curve. Tall, not too thin, and sporting a black dress that's design was much like Caitlyn's.

The red-headed woman squinted her eyes and said, "Maybe to you honey, but to me you are definitely what I want." She smiled.

The woman was putting Caitlyn at ease with every word. She genuinely felt better the more she talked to her. "So you know my name. What's yours?"

"Ruby Jillian, named for my grandmother." Ruby replied.

Caitlyn pondered the last name. "Jillian sounds familiar."

Ruby giggled, "Well it should. My father, Andrew Jillian, owns the bar. Jillian, _Jill's Hill_, get it?"

"Your father owns a women only bar?" Caitlyn asked surprised.

Ruby quickly responded, "I know what you're thinking, but he's not a pervert. There used to just be _The Pink Palace_, but then my father went to them and said, 'Whoa, I could make a second bar for this demographic and the competition would make us both rich.' So they agreed to vouch for him as a real bar. They regret it now that he has become so successful. Too bad, huh? He keeps it real by never coming out on the floor during business hours. I handle the floor for him."

"Yea? I like it." Caitlyn responded as she drew her hands from her face to rest them on Ruby's shoulders. "Hey, um, don't take offense here, please, but how old are you?"

Ruby smiled, "I'm nineteen. Of course that isn't a problem for the boss's daughter. So I come here a lot and after 5 years of helping my dad run this place, I kind of grew to like it and the customers as well."

Caitlyn giggled and Ruby joined her for awhile before Caitlyn asked, "So, would you like to get a drink and dance a little. You don't have to, if you don-."

In one smooth motion Ruby broke their embrace, grabbed Caitlyn's left arm with both her hands and pulled at her as she said, "Hell yea! Let's get drunk and dance our asses off!"

Caitlyn played tug of war with her own arm to reach back with her right hand and grab her purse from the sink before trying to keep pace with Ruby as they rushed out of the restroom. As they approached the bar Ruby held up to fingers apart form each other and the bartender nodded that she understood. Then Ruby sat both her and Caitlyn at the bar and waited for the drinks to come. Ruby sat to Caitlyn's left.

Caitlyn's left arm was still grappled by Ruby's arms. Caitlyn spoke or yelled first, "Is it just me or did the music get louder in here?"

"It's gonna be even louder now that the DJ knows I'm dancing." Ruby yelled back.

The drinks came in on two trays, both identical. Caitlyn surmised all five on her tray were meant for her. She was scared; she never drank so much in one sitting before. The drinks were organized right to left by color: blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. The drinks were pretty and most obviously designed to be drunk as quickly as possible.

Ruby looked at Caitlyn, smiled and yelled, "Ready?" Caitlyn mouthed a half hearted 'Okay' and Ruby continued, "Okay, put your outside hand on the table and place your inside hand on my hip opposite you. Its tradition so do it right."

Caitlyn didn't want to offend so she got close to Ruby and got ready to drink.

Now Ruby had some complicated orders for Caitlyn. "Okay so follow my lead with the blue one and repeat from there." She grabbed the shot and Caitlyn grabbed her own in turn. Ruby raised it up and clanged it with Caitlyn then brought it down to stamp the counter before knocking it back to complete the shot. Caitlyn struggled to keep up, but she understood it better now. Ruby winked at her as the two continued to do the same with the other four shots. Each shot was a different flavor. Blue was blueberry, green was apple, yellow was banana, orange was mango, and red was a sour fruit punch, for a final kick at the end.

When it ended Caitlyn asked, "So how old is the tradition for this?"

Ruby smiled, "There is no tradition. I lied. I just needed an excuse to cop a feel of that ass." Then she strolled to the dance floor turning once to wave at Caitlyn to follow.

In her head Caitlyn thought, 'I can do this. I want this. I do. I know it. Plus she's so fucking hot. Okay, Caitlyn. Move it. Now!' Then she almost ran, and kind of awkwardly too, out onto the dance floor to join Ruby. Caitlyn half tripped into her, but Ruby was stronger than she looked and caught Caitlyn in her arms.

"Sorry, but this music isn't meant for a slow dance. You gotta shake it! Like you wanna break it girl!" Ruby said in a whimsical tone as she let go of Caitlyn and danced around her feverously.

Caitlyn felt great now so she joined Ruby in tearing up the dance floor. They partied for hours stopping to drink on the random slow songs. Then tearing it up some more all the way until 4:00am. On the last song of the night they were both exhausted and wasted. So, it was good for both of them that it was a slow song. Caitlyn wanted to fall asleep in Ruby's arms. She couldn't have imagined a better night, except maybe one where that blonde bitch hadn't been so mean, but in retrospect Caitlyn imagined that what happened only happened because of how it happened. She felt kind of glad the blonde shot her down. She was much happier to have met Ruby. Such a strong girl Ruby is, even for being only a little younger than Caitlyn.

When the song ended Ruby pushed Caitlyn back and asked, "Want to come back to my place?"

It was obvious Ruby knew how to handle her drinking, but it was more obvious that Caitlyn couldn't. "Yeah, vvvbbbaa, yeah, let's do that. I'veeeeb been wait-*hiccup*-ing all night for you to mmhmmph, ask me that."

Ruby couldn't hold back a little giggle. Then she scooped Caitlyn up to carry her princess-style out of the bar and down the road. The young red-head was surprisingly well adept at walking home in heals while carrying another person. Almost as if this wasn't her first time. Caitlyn grumbled and moaned aimlessly the whole way to Ruby's flat.

Fourteen blocks from the bar she had a flat right above her father's in a 12-story building. Floor 6 was hers. A very nice place, half she paid for and half her dad covered. In reality she worked at her fathers bar and owned it in a way, so it was all hers. Always good to keep close to the family, point taken. The lift was tied to every floor so you had to use your key on it to go to your floor. There was a fire escape, if you didn't mind an awkward climb. The way it was designed made each flat roomier. They were all identical in design besides Floor 1, which was just a lobby with a little exercise room, and a hot tub that seated eight comfortably. The basement was where management worked along with maintenance.

Ruby struggled to prop Caitlyn up while she grabbed her key and turned it inside the number six slot. When they reached her floor Ruby laid Caitlyn in her own bed and went to change into a nightgown. Then she tried to stir Caitlyn awake to ask her, "Hey Caitlyn? You want to borrow a nightgown?"

Caitlyn half woke to find herself on the foot of a bed with Ruby standing in front of her talking. "Yea, undress me. I'm too tired."

Ruby almost just did it but instead decided to let Caitlyn just sleep as is. So she brought Caitlyn up to sleep properly on the bed and settled herself right on in, to Caitlyn's right side, to sleep as well. Then Ruby felt a hard kick and realized Caitlyn's heels were still on, so she got out of bed to take them off.

Caitlyn woke to the motion of Ruby lying back down and said, "Can I kiss you?" Licking her upper lip awkwardly, the way a dog would, or anyone would when they were as drunk as she was.

Ruby smiled and said, "Sure, but no sex." She meant it to be a joke as she locked lips with Caitlyn. Ruby was already falling for Caitlyn and didn't want to screw that up by ruining their first time together with Caitlyn being so drunk.

The same feelings weren't shared by this drunken version of Caitlyn. She pulled back to say, "No, yea, that. I wanna do that. *burp* Sex, let's do it."

Ruby was experienced enough to tell that Caitlyn was a virgin. "No, not tonight. Maybe when you wake up. Okay? Go to sleep now."

Caitlyn mumbled an argument that was incoherent and then passed out, letting her head rest on Ruby's shoulder. Then Ruby rested her head on Caitlyn's and stroked her still curly hair as she too fell asleep.

_Two years later. Piltover Newtown._

Winter had come and gone for Piltover and Spring was bringing new life and love to the city streets. Caitlyn had decided to finally join Alexander on a patrol, if only to let Zachary go out with his new girlfriend. She didn't mind filling in, she knew Zachary needed this real bad, and she also had spent less and less time lately with Alexander and a lot more time with Ruby. Two years of dating, loving, and experiencing joys together, yet still no sex. Some poets might say they were waiting for 'the perfect moment' but they really were just more concerned with being together than with 'being together.' It was a real love, and it made Caitlyn feel as whole as she did back when Roy was alive.

As she and Alexander strolled down the street surveying the stores and all the busy people Alexander started to speak plainly. "So, Caitlyn. You've been doing good with Ruby?"

"What does that mean?" Caitlyn perked an eyebrow up as she turned to face Alexander.

Alexander replied almost sheepishly, "Nothing, it's just that you never talk much about her."

"Well we're fine." Caitlyn said smugly.

"Yeah I know your both fine. Damn fine, but I meant your relationship." Alexander smiled mockingly.

Caitlyn hefted her rifle over her shoulder, stopped and pointed her right finger at Alexander. "You know what. You are just a one track mind. You never stop, do you?"

"If making light of my best friend's life is wrong, I don't want to be right." Alexander replied with fake dignity in his voice.

"Whoa now. Who said you were my best friend?" Caitlyn decided to play his little game.

Alexander placed his right hand on his chest, took a step back, and said, "Ah, I'm hurt. You hurt me."

Caitlyn realized he would just keep being dumb and sighed. "Look, all you need to know is that we have been doing fine, and we haven't had relations yet. That do it for ya?"

"Well if you ain't gonna tap that, will you at least let me." Alexander said in a straight face that showed signs he was ready to break into laughter.

Caitlyn looked and felt pissed in a comical sort of way. "Oh for the love of everything worthy, I am going to beat you to death with the butt of my rifle. Do you hear me?"

"Okay, okay!" Alexander held up his arms in defense. "Joke over. Joke over. I get it." He smiled and she did the same. Friends are weird, but the true friends are always willing to listen, and make fun of you to your face. That is what friendship is all about. At least it is for Caitlyn and Alexander.

As they kept walking they noticed a crowd of people who were around one vendor's stand. People were taking turns trying to break the man's metal plate with different weapons, which he was claiming was made of an impenetrable material. This chunk of metal was a meter by a meter in size, leaning against a slab of rock for support. The man's truck was parked next to his stand. The truck had a crane on it, meant to carry the rock slab and the plate up on board. The man was dressed in colorful robes, so it was hard to tell if he was fat and his face was so hairy all you could see were his eyes, nose, and mouth. Alexander thought that his facial hair didn't match the hair on his head, but then dismissed it because people often dressed-up in the market when they put on shows.

The man noticed the Sherriff and pointed at her saying, "Ah, The True Sherriff of Piltover. Please come and try your luck on my impenetrable metal plate."

Caitlyn responded cheerfully, "Yea, I bet I can break it!"

Alexander reached out and grabbed Caitlyn's arm as he whispered softly, "No Caitlyn. Don't do it. Think about what will happen if you can't."

She whispered back, "What are you talking about, let go." She struggled to break free of his grip.

"No, Caitlyn. Listen to me. Don't-." Alexander was cut off by Caitlyn breaking free.

She looked at him and said, "Don't make such a scene. The SHM round is gonna blow it apart."

Alexander decided to not draw more attention and started to pray that the SHM round does break the material in the vendor's metal plate. Caitlyn went to stand 25 meters from the target and Alexander motioned everyone back and away from the area while she got ready. She primed the equipping hammer on her rifle back to four clicks and set her rifle up to aim it at the metal chunk. She fired.

_KABLAM-CRACK! CHING! BOOM!_

The round struck the metal plate but did not break it; however the exploding round obliterated the rock slab behind it. The plate bounced twice off the ground before resting several meters past the target-point. It was dented, but not broken.

"Shit!" Alexander swore almost too loudly.

Caitlyn was surprised, but not mad like Alexander was. "Oh! Wow! Buddy your shit's really tough!" She said cheerfully to the vendor.

The vendor replied with energy that mirrored Caitlyn's. "Well, thank you young miss. Now I can sell this to anybody. Even the police I bet."

"Yeah, I know I would get that on my patrol cars." Caitlyn said reaching out to shake the man's hand.

"Well, now that I know it works, I will be back right here tomorrow to write up some contracts. Tell everyone you know for me ok. Thanks." He returned her hand shake, loaded up his truck with the metal chunk and took off leaving his booth full of many boxes of his things.

After the crowd died down around Caitlyn, Alexander moved in with a bit of anger and grabbed Caitlyn's arm again. "Do you have any idea what you have just done?"

"What is your problem? I was helping that man prove his point. Relax." Caitlyn barked back, trying to break Alexander's hold.

Alexander tightened his grip and replied, "My problem is that now everyone knows that there is a material your destroy-everything-and-anything SHM round can't break, including criminals."

Caitlyn's eyes rolled up and her lids slowly closed as she mouthed out, 'Oh, Shit!' "What was I thinking? I am so sorry I didn't see that Alex. Really I am sorry I got in your face about it. I'm such an idiot."

Alexander released Caitlyn and walked around the man's both to bring out one of the many boxes he left behind for tomorrow. "We need to see who this guy is."

As he started to open the first box, Caitlyn set her hand on its lid and said, "No. You can't just go through his stuff. That's immoral, and a complete abuse of public trust. In fact that sounds more like your father's kind of thinking from the Police Department than it does like a Sherriff's deputy would think of."

Alexander looked into Caitlyn's eyes and said, "We need to know who he was. What if he doesn't come back tomorrow?"

"I will admit, if he doesn't come back then it would be a little suspicious. But it still doesn't give us the right to search his property. I am telling you right now Alex to leave it alone. If you cross this line, there is no coming back." Caitlyn's face strained seriousness.

Alexander decided to just get it over with fast. So he tore the top clean off in one jerk.

"Alex! You Idiot! How could you-." Caitlyn froze on her own words as she looked into the box. Inside it was hundreds of cards with the ornate "C" on it that the most mysterious thief of Piltover left at his crimes. Caitlyn wanted to freak out. "Alex? Is that all what I think it is?"

"Yea, it's him." Alexander replied. "And I'm guessing that the vendor was him in all actuality. Hidden, so we couldn't put a face to the man. He probably planned all of this to test your weapon on his new material. Now he has all the advantage he needs." Alexander looked up at Caitlyn. She returned a glance at him with hallow eyes. "Look, I need your permission to make a special team to investigate this material. Can you approve me on that?"

Caitlyn was overwhelmed by everything that just happened, but she realized that it was all she could do now. This was the man who killed Roy and so many other deputies and police officers. "Do it."

_A few hours later. Ruby's flat._

Caitlyn had decided after the Sheriff's Department had confiscated the contents of the vendor's stand, that she'd go see Ruby tonight for comfort. All the boxes had the same cards in them. It was a clear message, and in the morning Alexander was going to start, and lead, joint efforts with the Police Department to find out where this material was being made, or was going to be made. Ruby wasn't home from the bar yet, so Caitlyn put on one of Ruby's nightgowns, parked a spot on the living room couch, and turned on her radio to listen in to police traffic. She was a lawwoman through and through.

After an hour Ruby returned, completely sober, from work and smiled as she saw Caitlyn on her couch. "Oh, man! You are exactly what I needed to see tonight. The bar was a mess." She laid herself down on the couch next to Caitlyn, breathing deep from exhaustion. "I assume you really wanted to come over here too. What's up?"

Caitlyn started off easy, but not really, "You remember that thief that killed all those cops three years ago?"

Ruby realized Caitlyn was really referring to Roy. "Yea? What about him?"

"He just tricked me into proving he made a material my big SHM round can't break. And I didn't even know it was him until after he left." Caitlyn's words came out pained and carried small discomforting sobs. She was physically admitting to Ruby that she was scared.

Ruby decided to be strong for Caitlyn's sake. Of course in comparison to this her problem was honestly a slap on the face. "It's okay Caitlyn" She brought up both hands to cradle Caitlyn's face. "Just stay here as long as you want. With me." She smiled and it made Caitlyn smile back.

"Can I stay forever?" Caitlyn asked, with some seriousness in her voice.

Ruby kind of understood what she was staying and felt a little delighted at the idea. "You mean come live with me? Like move in?"

Caitlyn started to respond, realizing she might have been too forward, "Yea, only if you want me-."

"Of course I want you to." Ruby cut Caitlyn off. "I mean I definitely feel sometimes like I need you to stay here. I hate being without you some nights. So please, yes. Move in here with me."

Caitlyn pushed in to kiss Ruby and replied, "Okay. I will get all my things tomorrow. Kind of glad to be getting out of my parents manor anyways."

"Hey I will be glad too. All that money I'll save only having to pay half of what I do now monthly." Ruby smiled wide and giggled.

Caitlyn realized her humor and did the same. "Yea, now you can spend it all on me."

They both kept giggling for awhile. By now Caitlyn had completely forgotten about her whole day. Of course Ruby had a way to do that to her. Either it was Ruby's charm or her strength or maybe some unexplainable force, but Caitlyn knew for sure that Ruby always made her feel great.

Then Ruby dropped the ball. She had meant it jokingly, but for the tension she created she hoped that it was taken very literally. "You know? If we're going to be living together we should probably make sure we work well enough in bed." She smiled in a very devious way.

Caitlyn made a mouth-open smile and said, "Yea, we should." Caitlyn sat up on the couch and motioned towards Ruby's bedroom, "Lead the way misses been-around-the-block."

Ruby got up from the couch and tugged at Caitlyn's left arm with both hands to drag the Sherriff into her bedroom. When they got in Caitlyn sat down on the edge of the bed as Ruby started a show of stripping down that made Caitlyn feel embarrassed.

"Oh wow! So you do this a lot?" Caitlyn asked mockingly.

Ruby smiled and replied as she undid her bra, "Not since I met you."

"That sounds sweet, but that can't be true. You must have been tempted."

"Caitlyn! I want you to believe me. I really haven't." Ruby said distressed.

Caitlyn waved her arms and got up to face Ruby, "No, no I don't mean since we have been dating. I completely trust you on that. I do, really. I meant before. Like after I first met you." Then Caitlyn realized what Ruby was saying. "Love at first sight?"

"Yea," said Ruby.

Caitlyn embraced her and whispered real close to her lips, "Me too." Then she locked her lips with Ruby's.

The two of the proceeded to make out while helping each other dress down to nothing. Then Ruby moved Caitlyn over to lie on the bed as she laid her own body on top of Caitlyn's and said, "We'll go real slow."


	11. Seven Lonely Years of Six: Part Two

**Chapter 11: Seven Lonely Years of Six: Part Two**

_Three weeks after freeing Candice. Piltover Edgeland. VI and Candice's House._

The district of Edgeover had grown so prosperous almost overnight. Since VI had little use for the huge sums of money she made on un-returnable stolen property, she gave a lot to random families struggling to get by. It was un-returnable because she would have had to expose herself as 'The Piltover Enforcer of Justice' vigilante, to do so. So she would just sell all the larger goods on the black market and return the smaller goods to the owner's storerooms, if she could. Of course she did spend some money on her house, saved some for the future, and to no surprise spent ridiculous amounts on her new love Candice. She bought her a bunch of nice clothes and built a new wing to house her stuff. Lots of jewelry, one for each successful mission she did. She may have been going overboard, but love can make you a little crazy. Candice never asked for it and sometimes asked her to stop, but VI was far too blinded by her emotions to stop. VI promised herself that Candice would never need or want for anything.

Today VI had busted up the hideout of the remaining members of the gang 'The Wrong Elements' and caused them to disband entirely, so she had bought a gold necklace for Candice that had jewels on it. She had used her gauntlets during the fight and had decided to put them away in a shed she made for her more private equipment, next to the house. VI reached for the knob on the door and turned it. It wouldn't open. Then she tried her key but the deadbolt must have been set because the door wouldn't budge. She knew Candice was home so she knocked and said, "Hey doll, could you let me in?"

Candice slid back the sight-slot on the door VI had recently installed and said, "No, sorry. This home is meant for two lovers who are honest with each other."

VI made a face that showed her complete confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"This is what I am talking about." Candice pushed today's copy of the Piltovian Herald through the sight-slot.

VI grabbed it and read the article on the front page:

_**The Piltover Enforcer: Caught on Picture!**_

_Last night a young woman was seen walking into the latest hideout of the notorious gang, 'The Wrong Elements' wearing a cloak and sporting huge gauntlets. What proceeded from there was a fury of energy bursts that ripped the place asunder, causing the members to flee for their lives. Our sources claim that seven are dead, three are wounded, and the rest have fled the city. This photo was taken of the woman fleeing the scene._

(The photo was a shot of VI with her hood half off, taken from her left side. You could only see her pink hair and magenta sideburns.)

The rest of the article went on to talk about the gang and listed witness interviews along with police concerns. VI was in a tight spot. She had to think fast. Candice wanted to know what this was, but VI didn't want to put her in a bad situation for knowing.

"I'm waiting." Candice said with her eyes beaming through the sight-slot at VI.

"L-look," VI started, "you know I get into some risky business, right?"

Candice made a 'humph' sound, "Yeah, you told me you work in semi-illegal salvaging, not vigilantism. This is so dangerous. You know when your out late I worry you got caught, but now I see I should have been worried so much more. What if you didn't come home one night? Was I supposed to just believe you were arrested? Because you could have been killed!"

VI realized it was time to be humble. "Okay, look Candice, I'm sorry. Really I am. I just couldn't-."

"Couldn't what? Couldn't tell me that the only person I have ever loved is some, dangerous vigilante? I thought you promised you'd be honest. I guess you don't have to be honest if you never talk about it, huh?"

VI sighed a little, but not enough for Candice to notice. "Look, I will tell you everything. But can we talk inside, where others can't hear all of this? Here," VI holds up the necklace, "I got you this. See it's-."

"Oh for shit's sake, VI! If you think for one fucking second that you can use that necklace to buy my silence on this then you should just go fuck off right now!" Candice could be heard in the nearest market as she screamed.

VI cringed and felt real shame. "Candice please don't say that. I didn't get it to stop you from being mad. I just bought it because I love you."

"If you can't see that I am pissed off right now, and you should just walk away, then maybe those Zaun White-coats really fucked you up more than you thought!" Immediately Candice wrapped both her hands around her mouth and breathed in deep. Over the years of dating/escorting VI she had been told of the poor girl's days in the Zaun labs, even more so in the recent weeks since Candice had been freed from slavery. Candice was also told the half-truth on how VI was given the scars under her left eye. "Oh no. Oh no. VI, honey wait I didn't mean that."

It was too late. If the bioengineered mass of flesh that waited outside the door had been allowed a soul upon its creation, than that soul was just torn apart. VI felt crippled. She could feel her breathing stop as she wanted nothing more than to lie down and die. In her head she thought, 'I'm not human, I can't be. Then what am I?' VI started to whimper, and without realizing it she started to stroll away from the door and out across her "yard."

"No wait VI, don't go, I'm sorry!" Candice cried out as she grabbed inside the sight-slot with both hands, as if she had intended to crawl through the hole. She started to fumble with her keys as she tried to remove the padlock, from the deadbolt on the inside. Once she got the door open she rushed out of the house after VI, who was only a little ways away walking very slowly. "VI stop!" She yelled as she got her left hand on VI's right shoulder. Candice got in front of VI to talk to her and to hold both of VI's shoulders, and stop her from continuing forward. "Please, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry VI."

VI stopped trying to walk forward, looked up into Candice's eyes and said as she burst into tears, "Yeah? But you did. And it's true. I'm not human, or I'm a freak of nature, or something." She sobbed and fell to her knees.

Candice pulled VI in to let the girl's head rest on her right shoulder. Candice patted VI's head and stroked her hair while saying, "No, no, VI. I was just mad. I said that in anger and it was so horrible. I was so stupid. Please don't cry. Your human VI, I believe it. I do. Do you know how I know?"

Between two sobs VI breathed out, "How!?"

"Because I love you, VI. I love you so much, anyone could try to prove with any form of evidence that you weren't human and I would know that they're wrong. You're human because I love you and no one can say otherwise, or else they can deal with me."

VI was trying really hard to talk, but her sobs were almost too much. "But what if I wasn't?"

Candice continued to hold VI as she started to rock her back and forth. "You are human. I know because I love you."

"But what if I wasn't could you still love me?" VI sounded scared.

Candice didn't really know how to say it, but she did love VI no matter what. That much she knew. She pushed back VI and held up her chin to say, "No matter who you think you are, or really are, I will always love you and I will always see you as perfectly human." She smiled waiting for VI to smile back.

VI did smile back. For some reason VI felt she still did more wrong. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I do for 'work.' I really am."

"Oh no, VI. What I did to you was way worse. Don't feel bad. I should ask for your forgiveness. You don't need mine, and even if you think you do then you have it. I'm not mad, really. I should be the one asking for your forgiveness. Honest."

VI looked towards the house and said, "So does this mean I can come inside?"

Candice sighed in a humorous manner, "Yes VI, you can come inside."

Once Candice got VI inside she laid the tough brute down in their bed and went to the safe, pulled out some coin and closed it up again. "Hey VI?"

VI was rubbing the sheets with her hands, thinking idly about the future. "Yeah, Candice?"

"I need to take 15 gold coins to a doctor I know of to take care of something. Will you be alright here awhile alone?" Candice called from her closet.

VI felt confused and a little scared. "Wait, what? Are you sick? Why do you need a doctor?"

Candice sighed with great despair. "VI? Do you know what an abortion is?"

VI understood the word, but it took about twenty seconds for her to realize the implication that Candice was making. "You-you're *gulp* pregnant?"

"Yep. Picked the brat up when I slept with John, right before I said I was being bought out and he hit me." Candice spoke in a most peculiarly casual way. It was obvious that this wasn't her first time dealing with an unborn child.

Hearing the name of the bastard that abused Candice almost drove VI into an uncontrollable and destructive frenzy. Then VI felt incredible panic rise up inside her. She got up from the bed and grabbed Candice's arms with both hands screaming, "NO! You can't! Don't kill it!"

Candice was a little taken aback by VI's outburst. "VI its okay, I've done it before. Besides, it's John's baby. I don't want to give birth to another creature of evil like that."

"But it's not John, and we can raise it to be better. We can raise it more like us. How can it be anything like John if we show it how to be better?" VI pleaded.

Candice laughed a little, which confused VI more, and said, "Oh wow VI! Maybe you really aren't human." Candice could tell it was too soon for jokes on this subject when she saw VI start to show worry. "No, no, wait. VI I didn't mean it like that. I laughed and said that because humans are greedy, jealous, and grudge stricken animals. But for whatever reason you aren't. You don't see this child as being as bad as John, do you? No you don't. You see VI; any normal human would only see John when they imagine this baby. But you really don't. Maybe you're better than human, VI. Maybe you're like the next kind of human that we all should be someday. I love you so much. Okay… because I know you'll love it no matter what, we'll keep it."

VI felt an incredible amount of joy that made her cry, but before Candice could ask what was wrong VI picked her up in a huge hug and twirled her around. VI started to laugh through her tears and Candice did the same, but without tears. Then VI sat Candice down on the bed and knelt down before her looking at Candice's stomach. "How big is it right now?"

"Oh VI, it's been lees than three weeks. It can't have grown big enough to kick yet." Candice replied.

VI asked in a puzzled tone, "Kick?"

Candice realized VI had absolutely no knowledge of what they had just agreed to accept the responsibility for. "Oh, VI. It's no bigger than my fist right now. After a few months my stomach will grow as the baby does, and it will start kicking. It will be trying to feel out the world around it, while it waits to be born."

VI was mesmerized by every word, but kept her gaze on Candice's gut as she moved her hands under Candice's shirt to feel her stomach. "So Mom, what will you name your baby?"

"VI! It will be our baby and we don't even know if it's a boy or girl yet." Candice said with a cheerful tone.

VI started to reply, "But it won't be mine-."

"If you're going to raise it with me then it will be our child. That makes you a mother too." Candice cut VI off with what she felt VI needed to understand.

VI just kept looking at Candice's stomach. "I'll be the best mother I can." Then she looked up into Candice's eyes and said, "I promise."

Candice was just amazed by VI's attitude in all of this. Candice hadn't started the day thinking about keeping the baby, but after this heart to heart she couldn't imagine letting this kid go. There are all kinds of families in the world, but if a family has love, unconditional love, then it will be just fine.

_Eight months and two weeks later. Piltover Edgeland. VI and Candice's House._

Through the months that passed, VI had done less and less "work" as she spent more time looking after Candice and her unborn child. She had built her own equipment, modeled after actual medical equipment, to monitor the fetus' growth. Alcohol was the first thing to go when she decided to join Candice in her restrictions. VI was happier for it; no chemical in the world could beat the euphoria she got from watching Candice grow with their child. She spent many nights waiting for that first "kick" to come, and when she finally got it she felt overjoyed. At times she could feel herself becoming frightful. Imagining what could happen to the child, to Candice, and to their future as a family. The uncertainty was getting too much at times for VI. She would have stress dreams about Candice dying in childbirth. Sometimes she feared to sleep as if losing sight of them both lying next to her would imply that they'd die. Finally Candice noticed and got VI to calm down. In truth VI couldn't wait to be a mother. It reminded her, a little, of when she used to care for XJ. She missed XJ so much, but had never told Candice about XJ. That was something she knew she would have to one day.

Of course today was not that sorrow day. Today was the day that VI said, "Whoa, Candice! What's up? Why did you just piss all over the floor?"

Without enough time to explain what was happening to VI, Candice's first contraction started up and she hunched over wincing. "Oooo, VI! It's time!"

VI dropped everything she had been working on at her desk and said, "Oh, shit! What do I do? What do I do?"

"Go get the doctor, now!" Candice's voice grew deeper in tone as she commanded VI.

"But what about you?"

"I'll be fine, just go!" Candice was growing impatient.

"But-."

"GO!" Candice bellowed.

VI didn't know what to do so she just left the house sprinting at speeds over 40 kph to go find the doctor. This doctor, the two of them had asked to help with birthing their child, was an old man and not a very fast walker. So when VI reached him and said to hurry she was a little disappointed at how slowly he "hurried" after her. Frustrated, VI ran all the way home, put on her gauntlets and made her way back to the doctor. She scooped him up and carried him, like her arms were a hammock, back to help Candice faster. When she dropped off the doctor he instructed her to go find the midwife as well. So Again VI ran out and scooped up the old midwife and brought her to Candice's side. The two experienced birth specialists told VI to give comfort to Candice as she started to go into labor for real.

Candice sat on the bed with lots of pillows and blankets, and her legs were spread out. VI went to Candice's right side and held her right hand with her own as she cradled Candice's head with her left hand. "It will be alright, right?"

"Oh VI, your supposed to be comforting me." Candice sounded angry.

VI realized she needed all her strength for this. "Right, sorry. Yes, everything will be alright?"

"Hey VI?" Candice said, almost calm.

"What's up sweet Candy?" VI asked trying to raise Candice's spirits.

"I know you have taken a sort of sabbatical from "work" to help me, but what have you been doing for income?" Candice asked bluntly.

"Oh, I haven't been doing anything wrong, if that's what you mean. We can talk later too, if you want." VI said almost relieved that Candice didn't start out angry over nothing.

Candice kept pressing VI, "Oh come on, tell me. Before I get too deep in this, tell me."

VI leaned in close, so only Candice heard what she said. "It's no big deal, but okay. So back when you told me you had this kid growing inside you I was approached earlier in the day by Trent form The Hexed Ursine gang. They wanted my expertise in building a small factory just outside of Edgeover in some abandoned warehouse. They had a client that developed some new material of metal, and wanted to increase production of it ten or twenty fold. So I have been making this stuff the whole time the baby has been growing. It's basically honest labor."

Candice cringed. "Ugh, don't say labor, please."

VI struggled greatly to hold back a giggle and succeeded without anyone noticing. "Okay, I won't."

The midwife that Candice had picked out three months prior was an old, but strong, lady that had brought many hundreds of lives into the world. Candice picked her because she had the greatest success rate of the other midwives. She was cautioned by the doctor that the midwife she choose is past her prime, but Candice liked the way she made her feel safe so VI told the doctor to drop it. Of course he complied.

"Have you two picked a name for the child?" The midwife asked.

VI thought a moment and said, "We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet."

The midwife chuckled. "All the signs I see point to a girl." From her tone it was obvious to them all that she knew what she was talking about.

Candice made the call. "My mother's name was Margaret, so I'd like that to be her name."

"Margaret it is then." VI reaffirmed the decision.

What followed next was the most bizarre experience that VI had ever endured. She witnessed fear, anger, sadness, and contempt; explode from Candice during the birthing. Sometimes these emotions all came out at once. By the time Margaret was crowning, VI had lost blood flow in her right hand. She kept trying to give encouraging words, but they only made Candice express more hatred. The midwife had informed VI that it is all perfectly natural, and that the things she is saying are not how she truly feels; it was just part of the process. Death, chaos, murder, and destruction; never made VI flinch when she faced it, but this was unreal. VI was visibly afraid of what was happening and during the twelve hours of labor Candice endured, VI was terrified the whole time. VI remembered seeing Candice die in her dreams; it seemed so much like what was happening during the birthing. Finally Margaret came out entirely and VI almost vomited as the afterbirth popped out. Then the doctor held up the baby for VI to cut the cord. Telling her about this part would have been a nice thing to do, because she immediately expressed worry that it might kill the baby. When they were able to convince VI it would be alright she grabbed the scissors and cut right where the doctor said to. That was it, Margaret was born, and after they wiped and covered the baby they brought it up for Candice to hold her.

"She's so beautiful," VI said just above a whisper as she held Candice's head in her left hand and clenched her right to return the blood flow.

"She certainly is," Candice replied, "Would you like to hold her?" Candice motioned for VI to lift up Margaret.

VI carefully scooped up Margaret into her arms as the baby started to cry. "No, no, its okay, I got you." VI said to comfort Margaret. The baby hushed a bit but still made soft crying noises. VI started to tear up too, and as the tears ran down her face she said, "I will give you anything you ever need and protect you from everything in the world, I promise."

_A little over two years later. Piltover Edgeland. VI, Candice and Margaret's House._

From the beginning VI was definitely the old-fashioned father kind of mother to Margaret, but not in the traditional sense. She took care of providing for both via work at the factory and only went out to be 'The Piltover Enforcer of Justice' when her 'work' was needed most. Candice only suffered half the pains of raising Margaret. Although she spent the days caring for her, VI, whose body was built to need very little sleep, spent the nights looking after Margaret. Normally the first few months or so are filled with many restless nights of a baby crying in its crib, but VI could sleep while sitting just as fine as she did lying down. So she would be at the baby's side all night every night. Candice slept in bed on her left, and the baby in its crib on her right. Every time the child cried VI would wake immediately and address the problem with a great amount of determination. Because of VI's sense of always being restless, Candice never once stirred from her deep sleep.

As the child grew it was eager to walk and VI was overly cautious it would fall and die, so Candice had to get the mother bird to calm down very often. In fact VI's incredible concern for protecting Margaret was the only real hurdle in raising the child. If she hadn't been engineered so well to handle stress and she were more normal, she would have been driven insane by her own lack of faith. Of course VI's concern had merit from her own life. She had grown up in the harshest of realities, constantly fighting the world and its odds to stay alive. She just couldn't seem to understand that the life she had lived was not the life Margaret would live.

VI is now seventeen and looked twenty, Candice had just turned 28, and Margaret is at 27 months of life. The family had been made and was growing well. It seemed that life would lead them to a great future.

For the past few months VI had been working with the Piltover Border Agency at being granted citizenship for her family in Piltover. The process is a long and expensive one and of course it would mean her days of fighting crime as a vigilante had to come to a close, but it was for the better that it does. She wanted to surprise Candice once the three of them had been approved for and granted full citizenship. She had shown her ability to create and repair hextech techmaturgy, so as to prove her value to the City of Piltover, if she gets awarded full citizenship. The tests were easy for her so she restrained herself from looking too good, but regardless they were impressed and were showing good signs that everything would happen in her favor. She received feedback from one interviewer that she should apply for work at Piltover Customs; the man said if she got approved for citizenship that he would write her a letter of recommendation. Everything was going to be better soon, and once again, it made VI feel like life could only go up from here.

The day had come for VI to receive either approval or rejection for citizenship. She walked into the Piltover Border Agency and waited in the lobby until she was called. Surprisingly the head agent came out to greet her personally. The man was well over the hill, bald, and had a little scruff for a beard that seemed intentional.

"Victoria Starke?" The man bellowed as VI stood up. "Come on into my office." Then VI followed him in and sat down across from him at his desk. "So, we have decided that besides the issue with your family not being a married family, of course we both know why not, your 'family' will be granted full citizenship rights into Piltover. Congratulations!"

The word that stuck out to VI the most was 'married' so she said, "What do you mean, why can't we be a married family. I'd marry Candice in a heartbeat."

"Yes, but you can't, marriage is between a man and a woman." The man replied. "But regardless we understand you two will be raising the child, we have no quarrel there. The birth mother raising it in Piltover, as you contribute to our economy and great works was the reason we approved your 'family' as citizens of Piltover."

VI didn't understand what he was saying, at least not enough to know if it was just a reality or something she should be incredibly pissed about, but she still thanked him anyways. "Well, thank you. I promise we shall be loyal citizens to all of Piltover."

The man smiled. "Of that we have no doubt, take care."

"Thank you." VI said as she left the Piltover Border Agency.

On her way home VI pondered what was meant by how she can't be married to Candice. In the end she decided that the whole idea of not being allowed to do so just made her angry, and even if she lost her citizenship one day, she would find a way to marry Candice.

As she reached home she started to run and get excited because she was about to tell Candice the wonderful news. Then she stopped just before the house. The door was wide open. "Candice! Are you home?" She called out, but received no answer. Then she noticed something out of the ordinary. The Hexed Ursine markings all over her house had been marked with red X's and she knew what it meant. Some way or another she has pissed them off and they have decided to cast her out. On one marking a note was pinned to it that said:

_Victoria Starke-_

_ You have been charged with betraying the trust of The Hexed Ursine. For this you have been casted out and your life is now forfeit. We have taken Candice and Margaret down to Two Stones Creek, right outside of Edgeover. Report there to accept your full punishment or they shall be punished in your place._

_-Trent, The Hexed Ursine_

"AAAAHHHHHH!" VI was furious beyond all belief. She rushed to her shed and equipped her armor and gauntlets and charged down towards the southern end of Edgeover. As she ran at over 50 kph she kept saying to herself, "They won't die, I'll kill the whole gang, they won't die, I'll kill the whole gang."

When she finally reached the area of Two Stones Creek they asked her to go to she was still running full bore. Before she could charge her first shot she heard Trent call out, "Stop right there, or we kill them both!" Trent was holding a pistol up to Candice's head as his two brutes held her in place. They were on the opposite side of the creek from VI. The water here was only waist deep.

"Let her go or I'll kill you all!" VI said as she charged a shot at full release. She believed she could launch herself over the creek in one full discharge.

Candice cried out, "No VI just run!"

"I won't leave you. Its ok, everything will be fine. They won't hurt you." VI tried to reply calmly.

Trent decided it was time to get serious, "So your real name is VI, whatever, if you die they go free, we only want you."

VI was angry but asked anyways, "What did I do wrong?"

Trent pulled some notes out of his pocket and said, "Our client for the new material you have been making has brought some new information to our attention. He has given us proof that you are the vigilante known as 'The Piltover Enforcer of Justice' and we find that it is a conflict of interest that you are. We appreciate how you made the factory run so well, but you cannot be allowed to continue interfering with our client's work. So we have to kill you. I have a proposal for you though."

"I'm listening!" VI said still furious.

"Those gauntlets you have on there." Trent said. "They run on electricity, right?" VI nodded. "Expose the panels and allow the charge you have to continue building, then put your gauntlets in the creek and electrocute yourself. It will be a gruesome death that those who fear us can expect of us. Do it and your family is free to go."

Without hesitation VI started to remove the panels on her gauntlets. She thought to herself, 'My life is nothing compared to Candice's and Margaret's.'

Candice called out in a painful cry, "NO! VI, don't do it, please. Don't do it VI. I don't want you to!"

"It's ok my sweet Candy, you and Margaret will be safe!" She replied as she finished removing enough panels. "You two are what are most important. I love you both so much." With that she drove both gauntlets into the stream. Immediately the power of the gauntlets froze her still, and she had made the mistake of looking directly at Candice so that now her love had the ability to watch her gruesome death firsthand. VI felt incredible pain, but her incredibly inhuman body didn't seem to die from the shock it was continuously getting even as it grew stronger. If she could think about anything but the pain and the safety of her loved ones, then it was, 'What am I really?'

"NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!" Candice let out blood curdling screams and the baby cried in turn. She tried to fall to her knees but the brutes held her up. "NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO! PLEASE STOP THIS, PLEASE!" Her tears blinded her and her sobs were quick and painful. "VIIIIIIII! NOOOOO!"

Trent knew VI's gauntlets well enough that she would eventually die under the strain and that it would be days before her gauntlets engine would run out of power. He was not concerned, the electricity had locked up all her muscles and she was powerless completely. He turned to Candice as she screamed and said, "Shut up!" as he struck her with the back of his hand. She stopped yelling, but kept sobbing. "So, we were lying before, you still have to die and we have no interest in keeping the baby. So we ask you to do the quick and relatively painless act of dying in the electrified creek."

At that moment the engine on VI's back exploded a discharge out the back that sent her flying across the creek. Trent was amazed and impressed. "Well that was certainly different. Kind of screws up the painless death for you two, huh?" He said as Candice tried to break free of the brutes to go see if VI is okay. "One of you go and check her, while the other helps me drown these two."

Candice cried out, "NO! Not my baby! You can't!"

But Trent was dead set regardless and he and a brute brought her into the creek by force. The other brute went towards VI and noticed her skin was smoking all over. He started kicking her to see if she'd get up, but she didn't. The brute holding Candice held her still as Trent wrestled Margaret from her grasp. When Trent had the child in his hands he nodded to the brute and Candice was forced underwater.

As she went in she cried, "NOO-!" and then she was under. She thrashed around for a minute before settling, and finally, drowning.

Then Trent handed his brute the baby and nodded for him to do the same. The brute hesitated with a worried look on his face. "Don't you cross me! Now do it!" Trent said as the brute started to submerge the child.

Margaret had only just started her first sentences. Her first word was 'VI' which had made Candice happier the VI had expected. So the only word Margaret called out before going under was, "VI!"

As if the word itself was enough, VI opened her eyes as the brute beside her kicked at her again. He stepped back as he noticed her eyes. They weren't normal. Both of them were glazed over in a light blue hue, as if she were a demon of some sort. In the middle of each eye a blood red pupil formed and she rose to meet the brutes gaze. Once on her feet she charged a shot in her gauntlets, knocked the brute on the ground with a firm kick, and sent the wave of energy directly down on top of the man.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE!_

A crater formed from her punch. The man was broken inside, but she punched again, and again, and again, and again, until he was a bloody pulp of bones and flesh. Trent was still in the river with the other brute and Margaret. He trained the pistol on VI and spent the magazine firing out at her. The bullets that didn't miss his target by so much, bounced off VI's armor. VI charged a shot and sent it out, discharging from her engine, launching herself towards Trent from the air. As she approached she charged a shot and brought it down on top of Trent in the creek.

_THOOM-CRACK! RUMBLE! WHOOSH!_

A wall of water in the radius of VI's strike crashed out from Trent, who had been crushed into the river bed. The brute holding Margaret tightly had been knocked back by the huge wave. Before the water could return VI struck again, and again, hitting Trent many times, even past the point of his death, and his complete destruction. The force kept the water back. The water returned as she forced her gaze at the rising brute. Fearing his own death he gently handed her Margaret's body and backed away. Holding Margaret in her left arm she charged a shot and struck the brute with ease. The brute was broken from the punch and was launched down the stream, skipping like a flat stone on the water's surface before splashing down many meters away. This whole time VI made no noise from her mouth, as if she was completely calm through it all.

As she returned to normal and her eyes returned to the way they were originally, she started to cradle Margaret in her left gauntlets as she wrenched her right arm free of it's gauntlet to comfort her daughter. "MARGARET! Please wake up!" She looked over and saw that Candice had washed up on shore, lifeless. She went over to check her too. "CANDICE! Wake up! Please, you can't die!" But it was useless, Candice was long gone. She set Margaret down on shore and ripped her gear off. She immediately started to perform CPR as she had learned to do from medical books, back when she was getting ready for Margaret's birth. She tried over and over to pump Margaret's chest and breathe life into her, but after ten minutes she knew it was too late. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Her cries could be heard from far away and it made people shiver and fear as to what could make such a noise.

After lying between her two great loves, and crying for hours she finally got up. As if she was now a zombie she started to dig a hole with her hands. When she felt it was deep enough she gently laid Candice down inside it, with Margaret on top. She positioned them like Candice was carrying Margaret upright and started to speak, "I-I P-promised you both, that I'd protect you from everything. I failed! I'm so sorry! I can't live without you. I don't know what to do now. I'm sorry! I love you both so much! I'm sorry!" With everything in her telling her not to, she buried them by the river's edge and stacked stones over their grave. Afterwards she laid herself down by them, crying, until she passed out from exhaustion.

When VI woke she immediately became lost in her thoughts, 'Why am I not dead? I want to be dead. I can't go on. Not without Candice and Margaret.' Eventually she rose from a force that made her do what she desired not to do. She went back home and repaired her gauntlets. Afterwards she went to a tattoo parlor in town and paid the man who worked in it to put ink in place of the scars under her left eye. The man pleaded with her that a tattoo is already painful enough on its own, but on the scarred flesh it would be more painful. She told him to do it anyways. After a few hours of careful maneuvering and a pain that VI cared little about, the man had put black ink over the 'V' and the 'I' on VI's face. He warned her to clean it often until it settled.

Then she went to the headquarters of The Hexed Ursine, and without warning, barged her way inside. As if she had no remorse she calmly began slaughtering everyone inside. She didn't ask their association with the gang and cared not for man or woman. In her mind they were all guilty so she killed them all and brought the entire building down around her.

After exiting the rubble she noticed Jared standing amongst the crowd. He was the man who helped her find a home when she first came to Edgeover and he would do anything for the right price. She approached him and said, "All the money in my safe is yours if you can assure me my house will remain mine and intact while I am away."

Jared was a little taken aback, but replied, "I shall do that for you, but where are you going?"

VI said it as if it could be done, "To get my family back."

For the next year VI traveled throughout all of Runeterra to find any magic or techmaturgy she could use to bring life back to Candice and Margaret. She traveled from Piltover to Noxus, then from there to Ionia. She found methods among them, but they refused to help her. She was somehow still too good a person to force them so she went to Bilgewater and over to Bandle City. Then to Icathia and across the Voodoo lands to the Plague Jungles and back through Kumungu to the Shurima Desert. It was there she was told about a keeper of time in Urtistan. So she ventured the harsh wastes of the Fyrome Flats to reach the timekeeper. He told her he felt her pain, but there was nothing he could do. Somehow VI saw that he had far greater pain that he could not remedy and decided that he had told her the truth. She then crossed The Great Barrier towards Demacia and tried to find passage to the Shadow Isles, but no one would take her so she went through Kaladoun to see if the magic in Freljord had a way to help her. They could not. When she could no longer find leads to a way to bring back her family, she had then completed her year-long journey and returned to Edgeover in shambles.

She found her home intact and protected under the mark of a new gang Jared had selected for her. She went inside and removed the heavy gear she had carried through all her travels. She sat down and buried her head in her hands, crying and thinking of the great memories she had made with Candice and Margaret. Margaret's first, steps. The day Candice agreed to stay with her forever. Bringing Candice to bed as a free woman and the love they used to make together. She felt as if she could remember the touch of Candice all over her body, the gentle lips she used to kiss. Margaret's first word, "VI." All of it came back with the pain of their loss. She had put it off all year, and it was crashing around her all at once.

Suddenly a knock came at the door. She decided to wait it out but it kept knocking. So she went and pulled back the sight-slot to see who was here to bother her. What she saw shocked her. Through the slot she was met with a pair of purple eyes staring back at her own.


End file.
